


His Woman

by WritinginCT



Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Alien Abduction, Drama, F/M, Family, Romance, Stranded
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-11-03
Updated: 2010-11-03
Packaged: 2017-10-13 01:19:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 24,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/131229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WritinginCT/pseuds/WritinginCT
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They were stranded together against their will, but as they carved a life out of the wilderness, she became his woman because she wanted to...</p>
            </blockquote>





	His Woman

**Author's Note:**

> Set somewhere prior to the "Midway" episode in SGA season 4. This fic involves members of both SG-1 and SGA, and though it is predominantly a Sam/Ronon pairing, the unresolved emotional feelings between Sam and Jack are hit upon.
> 
> Warnings: Non-consensual invasive medical exam, brief mentions of the off screen sexual abuse of a child

"Woman, I said let's go," Ronon growled under his breath, his eyes never leaving the dirty and grizzled villagers in front of him.

Sam Carter was nothing if not quick on her feet. She knew that she and Ronon were strangers here and outnumbered. Things could get uglier in so many other ways than Ronon telling them them she was his woman.

She quietly acquiesced and picked up her sack as well as Ronon's. They were big and heavy and she had no idea what was in them, but there were all the belongings they had. She hoped whatever was in them would be enough for them to protect themselves and wait out their rescue.

Sam saw women and children peeking out of the small huts, they were dirty and afraid and Sam's heart broke for them but there was nothing she could do about it at the moment. None of the men of the crude village were anywhere near Ronon's physical size or condition so when he growled out to all of them, "Do _not_ follow us," they all backed up a step.

Sam started out of the village towards the forest, Ronon walking backwards behind her, his eyes not leaving the villagers, knife held low but at the ready to do harm to anyone that followed..

They entered the forest and were finally away from the prying eyes of the villagers when Ronon turned and jogged a few steps to catch up with Sam. With a playful grin he teased, "Sorry about that."

Sam couldn't help but grin back, sometimes on rare occasions, like now, she would catch a glimpse of the man Ronon kept hidden away. She wondered, not for the first time, what he had been like before the Wraith destroyed his world and hardened him.

"I won't pretend to like it, but you did the right thing. We need to assess our situation and figure out what do do from here."

"Yeah. I think we should get as far away from that village as we can for tonight."

"I agree. But let's check out what's in these sacks first, I'm hoping there's something we can use to defend ourselves."

They both quickly dropped to a crouch and opened the large ruck-type-sacks at their feet. The contents of each were identical. They found spare clothing for both warm weather and cold, two blankets, a cooking pot, a hunting knife, some sort of metal mess kit, a large metal canteen full of water, a container with several types of seeds, some tools including a hatchet, spade, and hoe, a small tent, and several pieces of flint. There were also sacks of beans, flour, and something resembling rice. It was everything they needed to survive.

They each tucked their knives in their belts and carried their hatchets in their hand. Picking up the heavy sack and looping it over her shoulder, Sam asked, "Which way do you think we should go?"

"I saw smoke off to the north and the east of the village, so there's probably more of them spread out. West through the forest is our best bet."

Sam nodded and they set off.

Having spent years on a team with the quiet Teal'c, Sam didn't feel any need to fill up the quiet between her and Ronon with idle chit-chatter.

They hiked through the woods for hours and it gave them both time to process what had happened to them and how they got to where they are.

\---------------  
_Six days ago_

After the briefing Sheppard followed Sam back to her office. He did something out of character for him and closed the door behind him. He apparently had something to say that he didn't want overheard.

Sam put her data tablet down on her desk and turned to face him. "What's on your mind?"

"I just have a bad feeling about this mission."

Sam quirked an eyebrow up and asked lightly, "That bad feeling isn't coming from the fact that I'm going and you're not is it?"

"No. It just... it seems too good to be true. We don't have the best track record with people offering to help us, and these folks just want to give us their power technology? It's just not sitting right."

John had voiced those same concerns in the briefing just a little while ago.

"I know. And I'll be careful. I'm taking two teams with me. We'll be fine," she looked at the honest concern on his face and added gently, "It's not my first rodeo, John. I know what to look for."

"I know you do, but do me a favor? Take Ronon with you."

"I don't need a bodyguard."

"Please? Do it for me?"

Sam sighed. There were times that Sheppard reminded her so much of O'Neill that it was scary. She relented with a sigh, "Fine. I'll take Ronon."

\---------------

The meetings with the planet's ruling governing triad was going well. Too well. The only thing they were asking for in exchange for their clean energy generators were medical knowledge and supplies. They hoped to become some sort of a altruistic medical center for the galaxy offering care to all that needed it.

They had concluded their talks and Sam and Ronon were heading back to the gate with the intent to return in a week to finalize the trade treaty when a huge ship dropped down into the atmosphere. There was instant panic as people tried to run and hide. The ship wasn't of Wraith design and several smaller craft literally dropped off of the bottom of the ship and when they hit the ground, huge, as in nearly seven feet tall, armored troops poured out.

Ronon fought to get Sam to the gate, taking out soldier after soldier, but it was to no avail. They ended up pinned down behind a colonnade and tried to figure out their next course of action.

In the meantime, other troops quickly set up some sort of device in the city square and activated it. A moment later a brilliant flash of green light was emitted along with a high-pitched whine. Everyone in the square save the soldiers in their armor were rendered unconscious.

Sam awoke in some sort of pen with a dozen or so other women. The post and wires of the pen were buzzing with electricity and Sam stayed clear of them. She saw another pen next to theirs with a similar number of men. She quickly scanned for Atlantis uniforms but didn't see any, although she did see a familiar face waking up: Ronon.

The big man got to his feet and tried to shake of the remnant effects of the device. He quickly assessed the situation and tried to figure out what to do. He didn't see any other Atlantis men in the pen with him and he quickly looked to the other pen and let out a huge sigh of relief seeing Sam. Sheppard would never forgive him if anything happened to Sam on his watch. Truth be told, he most likely wouldn't forgive himself either.

Their eyes met thorough the pens and both of them just shrugged and kept looking around, collecting all the data they could on their captors, both knowing that if they had missed their scheduled check-in that Sheppard would come looking for them armed to the teeth.

\---

That hope was crushed however, when both pens lifted and moved slowly towards the waiting ship.

Once the pens were on board the bay door closed and the ship left the planet. The crying, screaming and shouting in the pens was deafening.

A sickly sweet gas was pumped into the cargo bay and the din soon quieted as the people in the pens fell to the ground, unable to move.

\---------------

Sheppard had three teams geared up and ready to go fifteen minutes before Sam's mission was due to check-in. When they didn't, he didn't hesitate to send in the three jumpers.

They found most of the city still unconscious, and those that were starting to rouse were not much help. They had no idea who the invaders had been or where they went with the people they took.

Sheppard punched a wall in frustration. "Dammit."

He knew he should never have let Sam go on this mission. The only glimmer of hope that he held onto was that wherever Sam was, that Ronon was with her, and he knew that Ronon would do everything he could to protect her and escape.

\---------------

Sam panicked when she felt hands on her, lifting her onto some sort of gurney. She couldn't display that panic, however, she was completely paralyzed, save for the autonomous functions of breathing and blinking.

Her large handlers were dressed head to toe in red, in something that reminded her of haz-mat gear. There were a half-dozen of them scurrying around her. Some measuring and making notes, others prepping things on a cart that she wasn't sure if she wanted to know about.

Her clothing was efficiently cut off of her and removed. Her hair clip and dog tags soon followed. One of her handlers began performing some sort of physical exam poking and prodding all over her while another drew blood, while yet another injected her with who knew what.

They went about all of this in eerie silence. Not a word spoken.

The handler at the cart turned with a long thin needle with a small device at its top. Sam's panic was back in force as the handler pressed that needle through her flesh and down into her right ovary. The pain was excruciating, but they didn't seem to care. The device on the top of the needle flashed yellow and the handler removed it. The procedure was repeated on the other ovary.

While one of the handlers was squeezing and prodding her breasts, pinching the flaccid nipples into hard nubs that he then measured with calipers, another handler pressed a button on the side of the gurney and Sam felt the lower half of the gurney split and raise. She screamed inside her mind as she was able to see out of the bottom of her eyes one of the handlers sitting between her spread raised knees.

Rough clinical fingers entered her, examining her. They were soon replaced by something cold and metal that cruelly spread her open further than she thought possible. She felt more poking and prodding and scraping. Another silent scream filled her mind as several burning injections were given to her internally.

She felt the metal object being removed and prayed that it meant their exam was coming to an end, but it wasn't to be so. The cruel fingers were back examining her labia and clitoris. They pinched and tugged on her pubic hair and spent time manipulating her clitoris in various ways, documenting the reactions. Sam could see one handler waiting patiently with some sort of metal device in hand while the one between her legs continued his machinations. She would never know what the device did because the handler between her legs waved it away with one hand while he was flicking her clitoris with the fingers of his other.

Finally they were done and the foot of the gurney lowered again. She was efficiently dressed in loose linen pants and a tunic and soft leather boots.

The gurney moved again and she was lifted off of it and placed on the floor in a different pen, this one with with only a few women in it, all dressed just like she was.

\---

Ronon was envisioning snapping the necks of each and every one of his handlers. He received the same general poking and prodding and injections as Sam but had to endure what could only be described as a milking machine being attached to his penis. It electrically stimulated him into getting an erection which was measured and examined before a sucking action proceeded to kick in until he climaxed. A handler then efficiently measured and sampled his semen.

A needled device was inserted into both of his testicles in turn, flashing green both times.

As they dressed him in loose linen clothes, his mind was whirling and he could only imagine what the women were going through, some of them only teenagers. He never thought he would hate anything more than the Wraith, but these handlers had proved him wrong.

\---

The pens quickly filled up and their occupants were soon able to move. Most of the women, and a portion of the men were sitting huddled on the ground, sobbing. Sam stood when she could and looked for Ronon.

The pens they were in now were not electrified, instead just simple metal slat construction, floor to ceiling. Sam met Ronon at the divide.

"You okay?" he asked in a low voice.

"Not really. You?"

"Same. I'm going to kill them." Ronon fisted his hands on the slats dividing them.

"I'll help." She felt strong cramps rip through her abdomen and she paled. "I think I need to sit down."

She sat down and leaned up against the divider. Ronon crouched down on his side of it, ignoring the throbbing ache in his testicles, and slipped his hand through the slats to rest on her shoulder. It was the only comfort he could give and he didn't know if she even wanted it, but he _had_ to give it.

\---

Over the next five days, they were gassed again every day and subjected to additional, although less invasive, exams and their gurneys run through a shower that made Sam think of a car wash.

Sam and Ronon were inseparable when they were in the in pens, spending their time shoulder to shoulder as they kept looking for a way out. Other couples also started meeting at the divider, no true couples among them, but people that had known each other before the abduction were drawn to one another..

On the sixth day, chaos reigned as armored soldiers began pulling women out of the pen and forcing them down a long corridor.

Ronon tried to hold on to Sam through the slats and fend off the soldiers trying to take her but he couldn't. All he could do was stand there and scream her name as they took her.

\---

Sam fought tooth and nail but was forced along just like all the rest. They marched down the dark corridor to a larger connecting one, small cell-like rooms on both sides. Each woman was forced into a cell and a slatted door closed in front of her.

Once all the women were secured, the men were marched down that same corridor. Sam watched with interest as the couples that had been paired off at the divider were reunited as the men were pushed into the cells. She looked for Ronon, praying they would put him with her. She didn't even know what the handlers specific intention was, although given the nature of the exams, she suspected it had something to do with breeding and reproduction.

Ronon was the last man manhandled into the corridor, they had had to partially sedate him to get him to comply. He was unceremoniously dumped into Sam's cell.

Ronon's sedation wore off relatively quickly and he and Sam watched as the first of the cells moved as a unit into the center of the corridor and down to the end. Bay doors closed behind it and it wasn't seen again.

Cell after cell moved and left over the course of the day. Finally Sam and Ronon felt theirs moving. The bay doors closed behind them and the cell was moved into a transport similar to those that had dropped on the planet during the attack.

Sam whispered to Ronon, "You think they're taking us back?"

Ronon looked around, "I don't know. I doubt it."

The cell had barely locked into place on the transport when it was released and fell towards a planet.

The landing wasn't particularly gentle and Sam and Ronon hadn't been strapped down in any way so they were a little shaken up.

The transport doors opened and their cell was moved outside into the sunlight of a temperate green planet. One of the guards deposited two large ruck-type-sacks on the ground near the cell and retreated back into the transport. A moment later they heard a click in the floor of their cell and the transport rose, lifting the cell with it and dumping them out of the bottom.

\---

It took them a minute to collect themselves and realize that they were dumped on the edge of a small, mud-hut village.

A group of over a dozen dirty, grizzled men approached and Ronon automatically put himself protectively in front of Sam.

One ugly, scarred man with yellowed teeth was apparently the leader of the group and said loudly to Ronon and all the other men present, "I claim the woman."

There was grumbling from the other male villagers but no one challenged him. Ronon, on the other hand, flexed his fists and spat out from between gritted teeth, "I don't think so."

"You would challenge me?"

"No, but I _will_ kill you. The woman is mine."

Sam bit her tongue and let Ronon take the lead, she knew she could defend herself, but it was more than that at play here and they really needed to get the lay of the land before she released her inner feminist on them all.

"I am leader here. You will get what woman I say you get."

Ronon turned his head to Sam and said in a commanding voice, "We're leaving."

He turned back to the leader just in time to see him draw a knife. He lunged at Ronon who deftly deflected the knife and gave the man a roundhouse punch that knocked him out cold.

Ronon bent and picked up the knife then stood, not even breathing hard, and asked the other men around them, "Anybody else want to try?"

None of the other village men moved.

"Woman, I said let's go," Ronon growled under his breath, his eyes never leaving the dirty and grizzled villagers in front of him.

\---------------

Sheppard somehow wasn't surprised to see all the current members of SG-1 step off the puddlejumper that had just come through the gate from the Midway station, he was however surprised to see General O'Neill with them..

They quickly settled into the briefing room and O'Neill got right to the point. "So what do we know?"

John let out a breath. "Not much, sir. The folks on the planet they were visiting have no idea. We've also been trying to contact our friends around Pegasus to see if anyone has any information."

Daniel asked, "There's nothing in the Ancient database?"

Rodney replied, "No. We've input video of the ship and so far it's coming up empty. Nothing even remotely similar"

Mitchell asked, "So they only took thirty people all total? That seem strange to anyone else? I mean if they're Wraith worshipers looking for humans to feed to the Wraith or slavers why not take more while everyone was unconscious?"

John answered, "We don't know, thirty _is_ a weird number, but what's even stranger is that they took exactly fifteen men and fifteen women, all between the ages of fifteen and forty."

Vala made a face. "It sounds like some of the breeding experiments the Goa'uld tried with humans to build up their slave populations."

Everyone in the room looked at Vala in horror. Her expression was neutral as she said, "What? It does. I certainly wouldn't rule it out. What if some enterprising group found out that the Wraith would leave them alone if they provided a steady food supply? So they hop from planet to planet snatching people and setting them up on some hidden planet to reproduce where they can come back later and harvest them at their leisure."

Rodney was dumbstruck and he mumbled, "You're talking about humans culling other humans..."

Daniel closed his eyes, trying to think about the fact that this was _Sam_ that they were discussing. "Vala may be on to something. We shouldn't exclude the possibility."

No one said anything as O'Neill's coffee mug smashed against the wall.

\---------------

They briskly hiked until dusk, only stopping for the most minute of rest and water breaks throughout the day. Sam found herself admiring how Ronon handled himself in the forest; he was completely in his element and his knowledge of tracking and how to avoid them leaving a trail for the villagers to follow was a big plus.

They stopped for the day near an enormous rock outcropping near a stream at the foot of a mountain ridge and dropped their packs with relief.

Ronon went and chopped down a springy sapling with his hatchet and brought it back over to where Sam was sitting poking through her pack.

Ronon took his knife and deftly sharpened the sapling and said, "I saw some fish in that stream, I should be able to spear some. There aren't any signs that those villagers have ever been out this far so I think we're safe for tonight.

"Yeah, we can risk a small concealed fire. I think a hot meal would do us both some good."

Ronon nodded then stood and headed for the stream.

Sam dug a small fire pit with the spade from her pack and by the time Ronon was back with the caught and cleaned fish, she already had a cheerful, but hidden, little fire started and a pot of beans cooking. He looked a little surprised at her skills but didn't say anything. He got the fish threaded onto a branch for cooking and perched it near the fire.

He reached into the pocket of his tunic and pulled out a handful of leaves that he handed to Sam. "You can make tea outta this, if you want."

Sam took the fragrant leaves that carried an odd minty citrus-like scent. "Thanks, tea would be nice."

Ronon sat down near the fire and stared into it for a moment, a little grin playing on his mouth. She was just about to ask him what was so funny when he offered, "That was my mother's favorite. My father used to go out on special trips looking for it. He'd bring back big bunches of it for her to dry so she'd always have her tea."

Sam wondered what prompted Ronon's sudden sharing but didn't dwell. Instead she just replied, "My mom liked lemon tea. And whenever I got sick she'd make me lemon tea with honey. I still think of her every time I have some."

Across the fire Ronon smiled, a real, genuine smile.

The food came out better than expected and they both eat heartily. Afterward, Sam filled the other cook pot with clean water and brewed them a hot pot of tea.

They enjoyed the tea and the quiet. The forest was alive with the sounds of insects and small animals foraging. They carefully cleaned up their food remnants and stowed their other foodstuffs safely pack in the sacks. Sam tended the fire, building it up so it would burn though the night and ward off the chill and the dew.

They pulled out their blankets and tried to find a comfortable place to stretch out for the night. Ronon didn't lay down right away, instead just sat back against a rock and looked out into the dark forest. "I'll take the first watch," he said simply.

Sam leaned up on her elbow and raised an eyebrow. "You realize that if you don't wake me up for a _second_ watch I'm going to be really pissed in the morning."

"I will," he said sincerely.

"Okay, see you in a few hours."

Sam settled the blankets around herself and rolled over to face the rock wall, trying to give herself some semblance of privacy. She was tired but sleep didn't want to come, so she pretended to be asleep and tried not to let all of the emotions of the past week overtake her, she wasn't successful.

Ronon knew she wasn't sleeping but he let her have the illusion that she was fooling him. He could only guess at what the handlers had done to her. He knew she was a strong woman, but he also knew that even the strongest women have their breaking points.

He finally heard her breathing even out and he knew she was really asleep. Without making a sound he stood and gently laid his two blankets over the top of her. When he did, she rolled over in her sleep towards the fire and he could see the tear tracks on her face by the fading light of the fire.

His urge to kill the handlers was back in force.

\---

Ronon let Sam sleep for about five hours. He didn't really want to wake her, but he knew she would hold true to her word that she would be pissed. And it really would be in their best interest for both of them to be rested in the event of an attack of some sort.

Sam woke quickly and shook off the sleep at Ronon's pat on her arm. He grinned at her barely awake self and teased. "Your turn. I made you some tea."

She nodded and got up and stretched. She quickly slipped of into the edge of the woods and took care of her bladder's pressing need. When she returned, Ronon was stretched out on the ground using his sack as a lumpy pillow. She frowned seeing that he left all the blankets for her and she picked two of them up and draped them over him. His eyes were open in a flash and she patted his shoulder with a grin of her own. "Get some sleep."

\---------------

Ten days and they had nothing. Sheppard and O'Neill were becoming unbearable. With each gate team that they sent out only to return with no new information the more likely it began to seem like Sam and Ronon were lost to them forever.

Mitchell, Lorne, Teyla, Daniel, and Vala took on the seedier side of Pegasus. They contacted mercenaries, slavers and Wraith worshipers alike looking for any clue. They found nothing.

Teal'c had taken it upon himself to watch over both O'Neill and Sheppard. He would sit silently with Jack out on the pier as they waited for gate teams to return, Jack grounded by Teal'c's stoic optimism that they would indeed find their missing comrades. John on the other hand, needed a physical outlet to his rage and fear and frustration, and sparring for hours with Teal'c provided that in spades.

The tension on the city was building, all of them waiting for the day when the orders to abandon the search would come from Earth.

\---------------

They had climbed to the highest point of the ridge. It gave them a perfect view for great distances in all directions. The only indications of human life that they could see were back in the direction of the village where they had arrived on the planet. There was no sign of a Stargate or any other habitation.

There was a lake far off in the distance at the foot of another small mountain ridge that they decided to head for. Not knowing what the seasonal patterns were on the planet, they wanted to build themselves some sort of a shelter while they still clung to the hope that Sheppard and Atlantis would find them.

Ronon was a skilled hunter and game and fish were plentiful along their route. He was a little surprised when Sam asked him to teach her but he did, and he found her to be both an attentive and adept student.

As the days went by Sam found herself receiving random anecdotes from Ronon. They were little things really, stuff he found amusing about Earth culture, and places they had traveled to through the Gate. He never said a lot at one time, just bits and pieces, little sentences here and there, but it meant a lot to Sam that the normally reticent man wanted to share these personal things with her.

She did a little of her own sharing, but tried to remember Teal'c's advice of not over-talking, so she, too, kept her stories short and to the point.

They were forging something between them, a bond, a friendship, and it surprised them both.

\---

It took them five days to reach the lake. It was just as clear and clean up close as it was from a distance. They reached it about noon, and the sun was hot and they were sweaty and smelly from the long hike.

Sam looked longingly at the cool water for only a moment before proclaiming, "I'm _so_ going swimming."

She peeled her boots off and waded into the water with her clothes on. It was an enormous lake and the water wasn't particularly warm, but she wanted, _needed_ to be clean.

Ronon watched her enjoying the cool water from the shore for a minute before peeling off his shirt and boots and wading in after her.

Ducking his head under the water then shaking it off he said with a grin, "This was a good idea."

Sam let herself float for a moment and gave him a little grin back. "Told ya."

Ronon spied something along a particular marshy section of the water's edge and headed for it. He reached down through the murky water and pulled a long tuberous reed plant out by its root. He brought it back over to where Sam was standing and said, "Hold out your hands. I think you'll like this."

Sam gave him a questioning eyebrow but did as he asked. He held the reed over her hands and snapped it in half. A thick, foamy substance poured out of it and onto Sam's hands. It had a particular pungent scent, like a mixture of licorice and fresh cut grass.

"You can use it like soap," Ronon explained, "You can wash your hair and even your clothes with it."

Sam sniffed it and looked up at him, "Really?"

"Yeah. I've used it before, it's safe."

Sam lathered the foam in her hands and didn't hesitate to wash herself, her clothes, and her hair with it. When she was done and rinsed she had to admit that she felt wonderful and more like herself than she had since their whole ordeal started.

They left the lake and gave each other some privacy to change into dry clothing. They hung their wet clothes on a convenient bush to dry.

Leaving their packs, they leisurely surveyed the area. The lake was at the edge of some gentle foothills that lead up into another forested mountain range. They found a flat open meadow edged by a stream half-way up the first foothill and decided it was perfect for their needs.

They had both determined that it appeared that they were in late summer and heading into autumn. And without knowing exactly how long they were going to be stuck here before Atlantis found them, they needed to get started on building a sturdy shelter and storing up supplies for winter, especially since they had no idea how harsh the winters were on this planet.

Ronon caught some fish for their supper and they spent a quiet night by the lakeside. At one point Sam left the circle of their fire and stood in the middle of the dark meadow looking up at the stars. She tried to orient herself as to where in Pegasus they were but she couldn't and a cold shiver ran through her as she realized that maybe they weren't _in_ the Pegasus galaxy any more. She swallowed down the panic that thought induced and decided to say nothing to Ronon about her fears.

\---------------

Jack O'Neill had aged ten years in the seven months Sam and Ronon had been missing. SG-1 had been recalled to Earth after four months, it had not been unexpected but it didn't sit well with any of them. Jack had informed, and not asked, the IOA that he was taking command of the Atlantis expedition. There had been some squawking that he ignored. The President wished him well, Paul Davis packed up his D.C. apartment, and Landry promised to look after his cabin. There was an unspoken undercurrent of understanding that if Sam didn't come home, that neither was O'Neill.

Most of the military contingent held their breath to see how Sheppard would react to O'Neill taking over. They were all surprised when there were no fireworks. John was almost visibly relieved to be able to hand over the big chair and get back out into the field, hoping with every mission that they might stumble across a scrap of information that would help them find their missing friends. He and Jack didn't always exactly see eye to eye in every situation, but there was a mutual respect and neither opinion was ever dismissed out of hand.

Ronon and Sam's quarters had been left as they were, the doors simply locked to be accessed by command personnel only. If anyone on the expedition ever saw O'Neill or Sheppard standing in the open doorway to either of those rooms, staring in and oblivious to the world around them, no one ever mentioned it.

\---------------

Ronon grinned as a particularly loud gust of whistling wind hit the cabin. "Good storm."

Sam chuckled and surveyed the game board on the table between them. "Yeah. I think it's going to be a loud night. And at least a foot of snow."

She bit her lip as she concentrated and picked up pebble and moved it. They were playing a Satedan strategy game that Ronon enjoyed. And he seemed to enjoy it more the better she played and the more challenging their matches became.

They had been stranded for nearly eight months, and from Sam's best guesstimates, the planet had very similar seasonal patterns to Earth. It had been back breaking and grueling work with the limited tools they had available, but they had managed to build a snug, weather-tight cabin. They had surprisingly worked well together. Ronon accepted that Sam knew about engineering and support structures, and Sam had accepted that Ronon had seen a lot of huts and cabins in his travels and knew what worked and what didn't from a practical standpoint. Together they hashed out a workable design and divvied up the labor, and the resulting cabin was cozy with a large fireplace and chimney made from smooth rocks from the stream.

With the main cabin built, they turned their attention to stocking up firewood and hunting and drying game to get them through the winter. In between, they built some crude furniture and cobbled together a couple of games to help pass the time in the all too quiet evenings. They also spent an hour or so every day sparring to keep their defensive skills honed.

There were times that Sam had vague disconnects when she entered the cabin, with it's rustic look and bunches of drying herbs and strung on a vine drying apple slices, she felt transported back to some of the historical recreations that she had seen on field trips in grammar school. She had a hard time reconciling that this was her life now.

\---------------

O'Neill approached the edge of the pier where Sheppard was sitting with his feet dangling over the edge.

Sheppard was drunk and working on getting drunker as he struggled with trying to open a new bottle of whiskey.

Jack plunked down next to him and took the bottle out of John's hands. "Give me that before you drop it." He deftly opened it and took a swallow before handing it back to Sheppard.

John took it and frowned at the bottle. "We don't leave our people behind, sir," he said emotionally before taking a swig from the bottle and passing it back to Jack.

"No, we don't."

"It's like they just vanished into thin air. Poof," he clumsily gestured with his hands, "How am I supposed to rescue them if I can't fucking find them?"

"I wish I knew, Sheppard, I wish I knew," Jack admitted wryly before raising the bottle to his lips and taking a large swallow.

A shooting star made its way across the night sky and Jack asked quietly, "Ever think about taking a jumper to go find them and not looking back?"

John turned and met Jack's eyes for the first time. He swallowed hard and admitted, "Every day."

Jack nodded once. "Me too."

The two soldiers sat in eerie silence and drank the bottle dry.

\---

Lorne, Teyla, and Rodney helped get the two drunk men back safely to their quarters for the night.

Everyone on the city was keenly aware that it was the one year anniversary of Sam and Ronon's abduction, and the mood on the city had been somber all day. Though everyone still felt the loss of their missing people, most had grieved and moved on like they had with so many others they had lost. Some, like Lorne, Rodney, Teyla and a few others, still held out hope that they would find them, but they had also accepted that Sam and Ronon might not come back. O'Neill and Sheppard refused to accept that in the least, and their guilt and frustration was evident in everything they said and did, and nothing anyone attempted could alleviate them of either.

Lorne had expected something to happen with one or both of his commanding officers on the abduction anniversary and out of everything that he had planned contingencies to handle, them getting too drunk to stand without assistance was definitely _the_ most benign.

\---------------

They had been on the planet thirteen months by Earth reckoning. They had expanded their little homestead and planted beans and wheat with the seeds the handlers had provided.

Ronon had made them a couple of bows and they spent time in evenings by the fire carefully crafting straight arrows. Sam had played around with archery as a teenager and it all came back to her as they hunted together.

After a few disastrous attempts, they figured out how to cure the hides of the abundant deer-like animals that had become a mainstay for them.

Ronon knew that in order for Sam to have risen in Earth's military that she had to be a strong and self-sufficient woman, but he never expected to see her so rapidly adapting to the life they had made for themselves in the wilderness. She worked just as hard as he did, and never shied away from even the most disgusting of tasks. She laughed often at both him and herself, and she didn't hesitate to let loose with the best of Earth's curse words when the situation warranted them. She was tough and strong but she always carried herself with dignity and grace. Ronon had found himself staring at her on more than a few occasions when that grace really showed through and he found himself thinking that she would have made some man a formidable mate.

\---

During his time as a Runner, Ronon had no interest in sex, his libido just gone. Once on Atlantis, in a place where he was relatively safe and happy for the first time since Sateda fell, his libido had returned and though he hadn't been ready to actively pursue a female companion emotionally, he did reacquaint himself with masturbation.

As the months went by stranded on the planet Ronon found his libido more active than it had ever been. He figured it was just because he was the healthiest he had been in long over a decade, the fresh air and outdoor living just good for his body. It wasn't until one evening at dusk, when he had slipped away from the cabin for a little privacy and settled himself down amid the mossy roots of a large tree and took his cock in his hand and stroked himself slowly that he realized that it wasn't the planet, it was Sam. A thousand little snapshots of her skin and her body played out behind his closed eyes. He bit back a groan as his release hit him just as he was envisioning Sam's breasts and perky nipples perfectly outlined in her sopping tunic after getting caught out in a sudden rain shower two days ago.

He felt incredibly guilty about it for days afterwards.

\---

Sam had emotionally packed up her sexuality when she left Earth to take command of Atlantis, knowing that getting involved with anyone on the expedition had the potential for disaster. Being a career military woman, she had sort of become immune to having physically impressive men around her, but she found herself on occasion noticing Ronon's bare chest, or the way his shoulders moved when he was completing some daily task. Watching his hands that had done the roughest and dirtiest of chores during the day delicately carve small wooden chess pieces by night made her wonder what those hands would feel like on her skin. She wondered what kind of lover he was, someone rough and fast and demanding? Or someone slow and tender and focused?

One summer day she took a blanket out to a bright sunny spot a ways down by the stream and spread it out. She stripped and laid down on her stomach, pillowing her head with her hands, enjoying the sun. As the sun warmed both her and the blanket a familiar scent filled her nose. She had grabbed the folded blanket off of the shelf where they had been keeping them once the summer weather had hit and made them unnecessary at night. Ronon's scent was all over the blanket, he must have used this particular blanket last.

Sam found herself becoming very aroused. With a quick look around to be sure she was alone, Sam slipped her hand underneath her and her fingers into her warm folds. She flicked and circled and teased herself with her fingers until her hand was sopping. Her nipples were rock hard against the scratchy blanket and the sensation spawned the fantasy image of it being Ronon's beard doing the scratching. She struggled not to moan and mew as she went on to imagine his solid body covering hers and him sliding inside of her. Her release hit her as she imagined him slipping his arms under her legs and pressing in even further.

She was mortified when her breathing returned to some semblance of normal and she felt guilty about it for days.

\---

Summer faded into fall and fall into winter. It was just before dawn and Sam was snuggled down in her bed when she heard Ronon rise and leave the cabin. It wasn't unusual, either he was visiting the privy or checking his game snares.

She roused a little when he arrived back a while later. She fully awoke when the strong scent of pine wafted over to her. She sat up to see Ronon standing there with a skinny little pine tree.

There was fresh snow in his hair and on his shoulders and he was wearing a big grin as he ticked his head to the side and said, "You did say today was your Christmas, right?"

Sam nodded, still not quite believing what she was seeing. Ronon was familiar with the Earth concept of Christmas, Sheppard having explained it long ago. Their first winter on the planet, on the night of their first snowstorm, Sam had happily shared some of her favorite things about the holiday, most notably the decorating of the tree with family and friends. He hadn't missed the wistful look in her eyes two days ago when she had mentioned that it was almost Christmas.

Sam got out of bed and walked over to where Ronon was standing and making sure the tree would keep straight in the little stand he had fashioned. Sam's fingers caressed some of the soft pine needles and she found herself unusually emotional. She swallowed hard and met Ronon's eyes. "You got me a Christmas tree?"

"Yeah," he answered simply as he let go of the tree to let it stand on its own.

Sam didn't have the words to reply. That he would make the effort to do this for her was emotionally overwhelming as she had been very homesick the past few days as Christmas approached. She didn't hesitate, didn't stop to think if it was a good idea or not, she just threw her arms around Ronon's neck and hugged him for all she was worth.

To say that Ronon was surprised would be an understatement, but he hid it well and awkwardly patted her back in response. When she didn't let go right away and he heard her sniff hard to avoid crying he broke down and let his arms encircle her and gently hold her close.

The moment drew itself out, and when Ronon felt her relax a little he said lightly, "I got decorations, too."

Sam giggled and sniffed hard one final time before pulling back and hastily wiping her eyes. "Really? Cool. Let me just go pee and then we can decorate it."

Ronon nodded and shrugged off his jacket and draped it on a hanging peg. "I'll make tea."

Sam quickly slipped her boots on and headed for the privy. When she got back, Ronon had a pot of water on the fire and a bundle of decorations that he had previously hidden somewhere in the cabin spread out on the table.

Sam looked at the collection of colorful dried seed pods and little bunches of yellow berries, there were also individual acorns that Ronon had carefully tied small pieces of vine onto so they could hang them. He had even made a star out of small branch pieces that he had painstakingly tied together then stuck in little sprigs of the yellow berries to outline the whole star. He would have had to collect and make all this months ago. She looked to Ronon's face and raised and eyebrow. "You've been planning this for quite a while."

Ronon's face was a mask, and not giving away any inkling of emotion, but his voice was gentle and sincere as he replied, "Since last winter."

Sam looked back down at the decorations and willed herself not to cry. She couldn't remember a friend or boyfriend even that had ever done something quite so heartfelt for her.

They spent the morning decorating the tree and they admired it as they ate a very late breakfast. They sat with another cup of tea and Sam smiled at the tree. "It's a beautiful tree."

Ronon gave her a playful raised eyebrow. She had said the same thing at least a hundred times since they finished decorating it.

Sam just grinned back looking happier than Ronon had seen her in months.

Later that night they had each crawled into bed and Sam was leaning up on her elbow admiring the tree one last time. Ronon chuckled from his own bed across the room. Sam turned her attention to him and said, "You know it's not really about the tree, right? It's about the memories of spending time with the people you care about."

Ronon rolled over and mirrored her as he leaned up on his elbow. "I know."

Sam studied his face for a moment in the firelight. Finally she snuggled down in the blankets and said, "G'nite."

"Nite," Ronon replied and flopped down on his back to go to sleep.

The next morning Sam got up first and found a surprise waiting for her under the tree in the shape of a large lumpy something wrapped carefully in a piece of soft deerskin. She crouched down next to it and ran a hand over it, trying to figure out what was inside.

She didn't hear Ronon get out of bed and approach her from behind until he teased in her ear, "You could always just open it."

She turned her head towards him and chuckled sheepishly. She carefully picked up the package and brought it back over to her bed and sat down with it in her lap. She gently unfolded the deerskin and found another amazing gift. His gift was both thoughtful and practical she thought as she looked at the winter coat along with matching leggings, boots, hat, and mittens that he had made out of deerskin and lined with soft warm rabbit fur. Even wearing all her clothes provided by the handlers, Sam had always been cold outside last winter. Now she had her very own snowsuit.

She ran her fingers over the precise and meticulous stitching on the coat, she couldn't even imagine how long it had taken him to make the coat, never mind the rest.

She looked up to see him standing there and staring at her apprehensively, like he was afraid she wouldn't like the gift or that he had done something wrong. With a grin she slipped on the hat and mittens and stood and stepped over to him. She gave him a happy hug that he impulsively returned. When she pulled back she clapped her mittened hands together and said gleefully, "It's going to be so nice not to be cold. Thank you."

His emotional mask was back in place, but there was a definite softness around his eyes as said simply, "You're welcome."

\---------------

Last year, the holidays on Atlantis had been very quiet and subdued. This year, they were back to normal. O'Neill and Sheppard even forced themselves to attend Christmas dinner in the mess along with everyone else.

When Rodney of all people raised his glass and said, "To Sam and Ronon, " Sheppard left the party as quickly as he could without a word to anyone.

Sheppard spent the rest of Christmas day sequestered in the firing range, burning through paper targets and ammo as he emptied clip after clip.

\---------------

The day had broken clear and beautifully sunny and warm after an intense snow squall had shaken the cabin all night. Sam and Ronon were outside surveying what havoc the storm had wrought.

Sam was decked out in her snowsuit, it had certainly made the past three months of a lingering and bitterly cold winter much easier to tolerate.

The new snow was heavy and wet and perfect for snow balls and Sam couldn't resist nailing an unsuspecting Ronon with one as he dragged a downed tree branch off of the path to their privy.

Quick as lightning Ronon scooped up some of his own and gave chase to a giggling Sam that was running for cover even as she formed another snowball in her mittened hands.

For a good hour the two of them ran and played and horsed around in the snow like kids, the sounds of their laughter echoing through the trees. Sam tried going further up the hill to get an advantage but she stumbled in the snow and that was all it took for Ronon to pounce and tackle her to the ground. Without thinking, he straddled her hips and captured her hands above her head, immobilizing the fat snowball she had in her fist.

Leaning down so his face was right above hers, he teased, "Drop it."

Sam snorted. "But I was winning."

"No, you weren't." Ronon's eyes were crinkled with humor, and his smile was wide.

"Truce?" Sam asked innocently.

"Drop it _then_ we call a truce."

Sam's long hair hung below the edge of her hat and was fanned out underneath her. Her cheeks were rosy from the cold and her eyes bright and shining with humor, and her smile was blinding. She was beautiful, simply beautiful, and he was so mesmerized at his sudden realization of that that he almost missed her reply.

"What's in it for me?"

Without debating in his head if it were a good idea or not, he bent lower and pressed his mouth to hers. He registered her shock, but as he deepened the kiss she was kissing him back just as passionately. He felt her hand relax under his, and the snowball roll away, forgotten. He let go of her hands and braced himself above her. Sam latched onto the front of his jacket and pulled him down closer all the while kissing him like it was the only thing she wanted to do.

His kiss had surprised Sam, but she wanted it, and she wanted him.

Ronon felt his erection growing and straining against his pants and he felt Sam below him squirming with her own desire. It was everything he wanted but everything he had fought internally with for months and he hated himself for being weak and giving in to the temptation. He broke the kiss and pulled back, his eyes sad. Without a word, he gently pulled Sam's hands away from his jacket and quickly stood and with a final broken look at Sam, turned and jogged off into the forest.

To say that Sam was confused was an understatement. "Ronon, wait!" she called after him and scrambled to her feet. When he didn't stop, she let him go, knowing there was no way she could ever catch him in the forest if he didn't want to be caught. With a heavy sigh and an even heavier heart, she turned and went back to the cabin.

\---

It was well after dark when Ronon quietly opened the door of the cabin and slipped inside. He immediately saw Sam sitting on the fur rug in front of the fireplace wrapped in a blanket. She didn't look to the door or get up or even acknowledge his presence.

Ronon closed the door behind him and leaned up against it. His voice was low as he said, "I'm sorry."

Sam swallowed hard and replied just as softly, "For what? Running away earlier? Or for kissing me?"

"Both."

"Don't you dare apologize for kissing me. You can be sorry about everything else but not that." Sam's voice took on a tinge of anger.

"It shouldn't of happened."

"But it did."

"I wanted more than just a kiss."

"So did I."

"You don't understand," Ronon said in frustration.

"What don't I understand, Ronon? Talk tell me." Sam asked, her voice more gentle as she realized they might be getting to the heart of the matter.

Ronon stepped over to the edge of the rug, his fingers itching to play with the long golden locks Sam had streaming down her back on top of the blanket she had wrapped around her. He wished she would turn around and look at him.

"Earth people, they go from bed to bed all the time like it's nothing. That's not how things were done on my world."

Sam didn't say anything and sat quietly waiting for him to continue.

Ronon sighed and admitted, "I was... I was raised that when you lay with someone that it meant something. That the person was important to you."

Sam stood gracefully and turned to face him, keeping the blanket wrapped around her. Her eyes met Ronon's and she asked, "So what are you so afraid of? That I've become important to you or that you think that you're _not_ important to me?

"Both," he replied with brutal honesty.

"You _are_ important to me, Ronon. In so many ways I can't even begin to count. And I _want_ to be with you. I don't know how to convince you of that."

"What happens when they find us and we're back on Atlantis? We go back to the way we were before?"

Sam smiled gently. "I don't think things between us could ever go back to the way they were before. I know I wouldn't ever want them to."

Ronon dropped his eyes to the ground, noticing that Sam's feet were bare and so were her legs under the blanket. The thought of Sam's long, bare legs sent a little flicker of arousal through him and he closed his eyes and swallowed hard.

In a whisper he shared, "I've only been with one woman."

He heard a slight rustling and opened his eyes to see the blanket pooled by Sam's feet. Her hands gently cupped his face and lifted so he would look at her. She was standing gloriously nude in front of him there in the firelight. Sam swallowed a little nervously and said softly, "I would be honored if you would let me be the second."

Ronon reached out and trailed his eyes and the backs of his fingers across her cheek and down the line of her neck and across her collarbone.

He looked back to Sam's face and nodded ever so slightly.

Sam smiled warmly and moved her hands to his chest, slowly unbuttoning his jacket and pushing it off of his shoulders. Slowly and gently she stripped Ronon down to his skin. Finally, he was standing naked bathed in the firelight, his hands at his sides, and his erection large and prominent between them. Sam reached out and traced the muscles of his chest, feeling him tremble beneath her fingers.

Ronon stood there letting Sam map his skin with her touch. Finally he couldn't take it any more and clasped a hand over hers and pulled it to his chest and claimed her mouth fiercely, putting all of his passions and emotions of the day into it. With no effort he scooped Sam up in his arms and brought her to his bed.

It was his turn to explore every inch of her skin, his mouth and his fingers finding every sensitive and ticklish spot, and his eyes tracing every scar she had earned throughout her career. She was a strong and beautiful warrior and as he moved over to cover her and she raised her hips to welcome him inside her wet heat, the realization that she wasn't just important to him but that he loved her hit him like a stunner blast.

They moved in perfect counterpoint, Sam matching him thrust for thrust. Sam had never had a lover that she meshed with physically quite so perfectly before and she took all that Ronon gave even as her hands tried to reach all the parts of him that they could.

Their bodies were slick with sweat, and taunt with need and craving release. Sam found hers when Ronon's mouth tormented her nipple and gently grazed it with his teeth. The intensity of it took her breath away and she arched and pushed and tried to get him even further inside of her. Her powerful internal contractions surrounding him brought Ronon right to the brink himself, and he hooked his arms under her legs and dug his toes into the bed for traction and let the additional depth and her waning spasms take him over the blissful edge of release.

\---

Ronon made sure the blanket was covering Sam, she was almost asleep against his chest. His fingers were toying with a lock of her hair, enjoying the silky feel of it. He thought about Melena and tried to remember what her hair had felt like. It made him sad when he couldn't, but he realized that it was his mind's way of moving on and of letting her go. Melena was his past, and Sam his future, whatever that future held. Sam's breathing evened out and he knew she was sleeping a sated, restful sleep. He ever so gently pressed a kiss to the top of her head and in the barest of whispers said, "No matter what happens, I will _always_ love you."

That promise made, he closed his eyes and allowed himself to drift off.

The next morning Sam tried to get out of bed without waking Ronon, her bladder was screaming at her and she really needed a quick run to the privy. She should have known that sneaking out on him was impossible and she felt him instantly stir next to her. She stroked his arm softly and said, "I just need to go pee, I'll be back in a minute.

She quickly donned clothes and her coat and headed out the door. The bitter, sub-zero weather had returned in force and she made her privy run as fast as she could.

When she got back inside the cabin, Sam found that Ronon had stoked up the fire and added some more wood before retreating back to his warm bed. She practically dove in when he leaned up on an elbow and lifted the corner of the blanket next to him inviting her back in.

Ronon cuddled her close banishing the winter chill and when her teeth had stopped chattering he asked, "Warmer?"

"Much, thank you."

"Good," he chuckled and quickly flipped them around so he was lying on top of her. All hints of his previous reticence disappeared as he gently and playfully made love to her again.

\---------------

Of all the people in the Pegasus galaxy that Sheppard might have expected to get information about Sam and Ronon's abduction from, Ladon Radim was not the first or even tenth person he would have expected.

After being carefully screened offworld, Ladon stepped through the gate to Atlantis.

Sheppard met him at the gate, his demeanor towards Ladon cool and not particularly friendly.

"Colonel Sheppard. I had hoped by now that I would have alleviated some of your distrust. I'm hoping that what I found might be able to bridge the distance between us that I don't seem to be able to."

Sheppard nodded, but didn't say anything and gestured for Ladon to head to the conference room.

They got settled in the conference room and Sheppard made the introductions between O'Neill and Ladon.

O'Neill canned the idle chit-chat after a minute and got down to business. "So you think you have something about our missing people?"

Ladon frowned a little, "I wish I had their location to share with you, but I don't."

Rodney looked up from his data tablet and snapped sarcastically, "Typical. So what _do_ you have and what's it going to cost us?"

Ladon choose to ignore the bait and focused on O'Neill who was at least being civil. Ladon reached into the shoulder bag he was wearing and pulled out a piece of paper with the addresses of over a dozen planets. He slid it over to O'Neill.

"This is a list of seventeen worlds that have reports of abductions just like Colonel Carter and Ronon. No one knows who the abductors are or where they came from. They only seem to take the young and healthy and always in equal numbers of men and women. The abductions started about twenty years ago, and none of the people taken were ever heard from again. Except for one."

Jack sat up straight. "There's a survivor?"

"No," he fished in his bag again and pulled out a leather journal, "I had heard about the woman and went to talk to her."

Sheppard was furious. "You should have contacted us. We would have gone. They're our people missing."

Ladon took a breath and let it out slowly. He met Sheppard's eyes. "I wanted to make sure it was true before getting your hopes up. The person I got the information from hasn't always been reliable in the past and I didn't think you deserved to be tricked or lied to, not about this. I'm sorry."

O'Neill reached over and tapped the diary. "So what is this?"

"I went to speak with the surviving woman a couple of days ago. Unfortunately, I arrived on the woman's planet just in time for her funeral, she had taken her own life. When I explained the circumstances her sister gave me her journal in the hopes that there might be something in there that can be used to find Colonel Carter and Ronon and anyone else that was abducted."

O'Neill raised an eyebrow and his voice was respectful as he said, "I'm not going to lie to you, I wish you _had_ come to us first, but thank you, this is the first real piece of information we've got. Have you read it? Is there anything helpful in it?"

Ladon swallowed hard, "General, she's very graphic about what was done to her, and it's very disturbing. I just can't figure out what the abductors' end goal is exactly, it just doesn't make sense. What I did find interesting are her sketches of what looks like symbols or foreign letters of some kind that she saw on the ship. Maybe you can find some match to them in the library of the Ancestors here on Atlantis. I've marked those just those pages if you don't want to read the rest."

Jack nodded and rested his hand on the diary, hope filling his chest for the first time in nearly two years. He leveled his gaze on Ladon. "Is there anything your people need?"

Ladon held up his hands. "I didn't come here looking for anything in return other than some good will, General."

"I didn't say you did. But I'm asking, is there anything your people need?"

Ladon dropped his eyes to the table, trying to think quickly, his people needed so many many things, but he didn't want to appear greedy or scheming. He finally struck upon something that shouldn't raise anyone's hackles. He stroked his jaw with his fingers. "Doctor Beckett had mentioned to my sister that you have better dental techniques and supplies than the Genii, would it possible to have access to some of that and perhaps some training for one our doctors who can then train others?"

O'Neill stood with the diary in his hand, he nodded and extended his other hand to Ladon. "I think that can be arranged. Thank you, Radim."

"You're welcome, General. For what it's worth, I sincerely hope you find your people and if you need men or help with a rescue, please let me know, " he turned towards Sheppard, "I'm serious about building that bridge, Colonel, I hope you see that."

Sheppard nodded and after a moment's hesitation, extended his hand, "I think the first plank just got nailed down."

Ladon smiled and shook Sheppard's hand.

\---

O'Neill and Sheppard sequestered themselves in O'Neill's office with the diary, refusing to let anyone else read it until they knew what it contained.

They flipped first to the pages Ladon had marked, none of the symbols looked at all familiar although there was a hint of familiarity hovering around the edges of O'Neill's consciousness that bugged him.

The sketches looked at, the two men set their jaw and read what the young woman had written about her ordeal. When they were done, both men were a little pale and a lot angry. Jack went and opened up a desk drawer and pulled out a bottle of whiskey and a pair of glasses. He poured each of them a stiff belt and brought them back over to the table.

Sheppard had a painful, confused look on his face. He swirled the liquor around in the glass and took a sip. "So what do you think? Some sort of fertility tests? Breeding experiments? Ladon was right, I can't figure out their endgame."

O'Neill sighed, the woman's diary had gone into great detail about what her abductors had done to her, none of it pleasant. It was the woman herself that speculated that she failed some sort of fertility test as they kept sticking some needle-like probe into her ovaries again and again, a red light flashing every time. When she had been examined upon returning home, the doctors had discovered she was in fact, infertile, her ovaries never developing properly. After their testing, the abductors had literally dumped her on the closest planet to them. She had been lucky that it was a world with a Stargate and she knew how to get home. But in the end the trauma of her ordeal had shattered her mind and she wrote of her plan to hang herself.

"I don't know." O'Neill's voice was low and deadly and spoke volumes about badly he wanted to kill every last one of them.

O'Neill stood and when to the door. He gestured to Chuck who immediately came over to the doorway.

"I want you to dial Midway and tell them that I need Daniel Jackson here immediately if not sooner."

Chuck nodded. "Yes, General, right away."

Jack knew that the linguists on Atlantis were good, but he wanted the best, he wanted Daniel.

\---------------

Sam was scraping a fresh deer hide, it was a task she had done many times before and though not a particularly tasteful task, it had never made run for the bushes and vomit back up her entire lunch before like it did today. She had been noticing other odd changes in her body over the past couple of weeks, bouts of lightheadedness, extreme reactions to certain smells, and her appetite had kicked into overdrive.

She wasn't a stupid women and the possibility that she could get pregnant had been something she had thought long and hard about the winter day she waited by the fire for Ronon. On the one hand, she didn't really want to have a baby out here in the wilderness with no doctors or medical facilities, but on the other, she wasn't getting any younger, and if they waited it might never happen, or even worse something could go wrong with the pregnancy or birth. And then there was Ronon, who had shyly admitted to her that he had always wanted a big family and to be surrounded by his children. In her heart Sam knew there wasn't anything she wouldn't give Ronon if it were in her power to give.

Sam stood and spat into the bushes a final time. She turned to see Ronon standing there, holding out a canteen and a sprig of mint for her to chew. The smile on his face was enormous.

Sam took the water and the mint gratefully and she rinsed her mouth and spat again before taking a swallow of water. She picked off a mint leaf and chewed it, glad to have the foul vomit taste out of her mouth. All the while Ronon was standing there grinning like a fool.

"What are you grinning at?" she asked a little grouchily.

"The mother of my child," he teased back, and though she wouldn't have thought it possible, his smile grew even wider.

"How did you know? I just figured it out for myself for sure about five minutes ago."

"I figured it out last week, after you got dizzy for the third time picking apples."

Ronon took a step closer and Sam asked tentatively, "So you're happy about this right?"

He pulled her into his arms and squeezed her gently. He pressed a kiss to the side of her head and said with his voice thick with emotion, "I'm gonna be a father."

\---

Later that night they made love that was achingly slow and tender, Ronon taking particular delight in planting feathery kisses on her stomach above where their child grew in her womb.

Back on Atlantis if anyone had tried to tell Sam what a hopeless romantic Ronon was, she would never have believed them. But here in this place, she saw that side of him more and more. It wasn't just the obvious, like the bunches of wildflowers he would pick and leave for her without a word, and it wasn't that he would hike an hour out of his way just to pick her a few handfuls of the sweet berries she liked so much. No, it was how he would lie quietly beside her for hours out in the meadow just staring up at the stars, and it was the way he shared pieces of his family and life on Sateda with her, things precious to him, and it was even the way he had asked her one long winter night to teach him some of that "science stuff" she knew. He was a good man, solid dependable, honorable, with a wicked sense of humor, and if he had some rough edges, well that just added to his charm.

As they lie there in bed, Ronon resting his cheek on her breast as his big hand rested warmly over their child, Sam whispered emotionally, "I love you."

Ronon stilled on top of her and slowly shifted so he could looked at her face. The honest and simple joy Sam saw in his eyes almost made her cry. He moved up a little and kissed her softly, he pulled back a little with his mouth hovering above hers and whispered, "Love you, too."

Sam took his face in her hands and kissed him long and slow and possessively, claiming him in her own way.

\---------------

When Daniel had arrived on Atlantis eight months ago, he had come through Midway with a dozen large rugged totes of books and two duffel bags of clothes and personal items. He had made it clear to the SGC and the IOA that he was going to Atlantis indefinitely. Mitchell and Vala both tried to talk him out of it and when that didn't work, they tried to come along, which was not approved by the powers that be. Teal'c on the other hand had merely bowed his head with a familiar grin and told Daniel to contact him if he required assistance.

Daniel had taken one look at the symbols in the diary and whispered, "Where have I seen that before?"

He worked night and day, sifting through the books he brought with him and the Ancient database and going with Sheppard's team offworld and scouring through any library he could find to no avail.

\---

Daniel had drawn the blockish symbols in dry erase marker on the glass door leading to the balcony of his office. The bright sunlight would hit them during the day and fill the room with a stained glass effect.

As was his habit every afternoon, Jack would stop by and hang out and pester Daniel. Most of the time Daniel would trade a few barbs with Jack and evict him from his office. Today though, when Jack visited, Daniel was completely absorbed in what he was reading and ignored Jack entirely.

Jack wandered over to the door and headed out onto the balcony. He closed his eyes and let the sun warm him. He couldn't help but wonder for the millionth time if Sam were warm enough wherever she was, she wasn't a big fan of being cold since their little Antarctic adventure. He opened his eyes and turned to go back inside when he noticed the colorful patterns on the wall behind Daniel made by sun shining through the symbols on the door. They were reversed and weren't as square and the angle of the sun had elongated them a little. He knew in an instant where he had see them before.

He knocked loudly on the glass, startling Daniel. He gestured wildly and Daniel quickly joined him on the balcony.

"What is it, Jack?"

Jack put his hands on Daniel's shoulders and physically turned him around to face the office. "What does that look like to you?"

The recognition dawned on Daniel's face in an instant and he replied hoarsely, "It's Furling."

\---------------

Sam giggled as she saw what Ronon had been up too all day. She rested her hand over the baby inside her that was wiggling along to her humor.

"You're too much, " she teased Ronon as she walked closer to his creation.

"You said you wanted something comfortable to sit on out here." Ronon quipped back, his expression full of good humor.

Sam looked over the large "chair" that he had crafted out of a mound of wood and stone and dirt and padded with soft moss, then covered all of it with one of their many deer skins. She had been complaining that her nine-month pregnant self couldn't get up and down to sit on the ground in the sun like she used to, so Ronon took it upon himself to rectify it in his own way. The "chair" wasn't particularly pretty but it was wide and solid and comfortable.

"Yes, I did," she said with another giggle. She stepped over to it and Ronon held her hand as she carefully sat down. She settled herself down into it with a sigh, it really was comfortable, and the late spring sun was warm on her face.

Throughout her pregnancy he had done thoughtful things like this. Sam didn't act like an invalid, and Ronon to his credit didn't treat her like one, but they were careful and she didn't take any unnecessary risks.

They had also planned a little in the event that something either happened to Sam's milk supply or even Sam herself. Early in the spring Ronon had made a trip up high into the mountains and caught one of the pregnant mountain goats and brought it back to the cabin. It had dropped two kids that Sam adored and seemed to be quite content in its pen being brought abundant food and water.

Ronon had also crafted a cradle out of saplings and padded it with soft deerskin and rabbit fur and Sam had been making baby clothes and accessories all winter. Their child would want for nothing.

\---

Sam had been fidgety all day, restless, with little odd twinges she believed might be the precursor to contractions. She just hadn't slept well the past few nights. She finally fell asleep as she lie next to Ronon with his warm hand gently rubbing her sore back. She didn't sleep long however as her bladder woke her up with the incessant need to pee. She ungracefully climbed out of bed and had just taken a step over to the stretched hide commode bucket Ronon had made for her so she didn't have to go outside to the privy for all her middle of the night pee breaks, when her her water broke.

Her gasp of surprise woke Ronon in an instant. He had suspected she was close as her behavior had been a little off the past couple of days. He slipped out of bed with a sleepy grin.

\---

The birth itself went very smoothly all things considered, and their son made his appearance just before dawn. Sam was tired and sore, but the look of awe and wonder on Ronon's face as he gently cleaned his son more than made up for it.

Egin Jacob Dex, named for both of his grandfathers in the Satedan firstborn-son way, gave several hearty cries that echoed in the cabin. Both his parents grinned at his feisty little nature.

Ronon took his role as midwife very seriously and very efficiently had both the baby and Sam cleaned up and in fresh coverings on the bed in short order. He then slipped into bed beside Sam and let her settle herself comfortably against him, the baby resting on Ronon's stomach where he was lulled to sleep by the heartbeats of both his parents.

\---------------

The three-year anniversary of Sam and Ronon's abduction passed with little fanfare. It had taken a sudden back burner to the discovery that Wraith were inexplicably dying by the score.

Hive ships literally disintegrated in space and Wraith themselves would drop in a pile of unrecognizable bones and slime. No one on Atlantis had an answer.

As the months passed and a continuous stream of reports filtered in of more dead Wraith, the Atlantis scientists finally narrowed down the cause. What was killing the Wraith and their hives was a form of flesh-eating bacteria that had either mutated on its own to only attack Wraith flesh, or the more likely scenario was that some scientist somewhere in the galaxy had finally created the magic bullet they needed to get rid of the Wraith once and for all.

Without knowing exact Wraith population numbers they couldn't be certain, but they estimated that by the end of six months that there would be less then one percent of Wraith left alive as the bacteria ran its course.

The celebrating was loud and obnoxious far and wide across Pegasus.

\---------------

"Get up," a gruff voice ordered.

He sat up and tried to blink himself awake. The man doing the ordering was enormous with an expression that promised bodily harm if he didn't comply.

"Who are you?" the giant demanded.

"My name is Syrut. Please don't hurt me."

Ronon looked at the small, skinny young man with a raised eyebrow. Besides being a particularly small person, and only in his teens, he was relatively clean and Ronon suspected that he was a new addition to the planet. Ronon did wonder about the bruises he could see on the his face and neck though.

"I'm not going to hurt you."

The teenager scrambled to his feet. He was wary and asked, "Are you with those others?"

"No."

Syrut let out a huge breath of relief. "We got dumped out near that village. The men took the girl I was with, I tried to fight them but there were too many."

Ronon nodded.

Syrut looked down towards the ground. "She screamed all night. There was nothing I could do. Then the next day she found a piece of flint and cut her wrists. I couldn't stay there so I ran away. I don't know what to do now"

Ronon's voice was gentle, "C'mon. Get your stuff."

\---

To say that Sam was surprised to see Ronon bring Syrut into their home was an understatement. Ronon was perpetually vigilant about people from the village making their way to their home. He would sometimes hike out for a full day and check for any signs of encroachment. He had become even more vigilant since the birth of their son.

Syrut was an extremely pleasant and respectful young man, that was in fact barely sixteen. He was still traumatized over his abduction and the subsequent rape and death of his female companion, but Sam caught glimpses of the cheerful and caring boy he was before the abduction, and she hoped with time he would be able to put it all past him.

Syrut worked hard by Ronon's side and Sam found herself smiling often at the two as Ronon patiently taught the young man the skills he needed to survive on the planet.

Egin wholehearted loved Syrut, and he was so good with the baby that Sam never hesitated to leave the two boys together while she took care of her own chores.

\---

Sam and Ronon were walking by the moonlit lake shore, enjoying a quiet few minutes together while Syrut minded the baby.

The muffled sound of a raspberry on skin followed by a laughing baby filtered down to them. Sam smiled and said, "He's good kid."

Ronon grinned sheepishly, they had never really talked about him bringing home a stray. "Yeah."

Sam slid her arm around Ronon's waist, snuggling closer as his arm went around her shoulder. "You did the right thing, bringing him here."

\---

Syrut worked himself into an exhausted sleep every night. He was desperate to earn his keep and helped to chop wood and put up supplies for the upcoming winter.

When that winter arrived, Sam found herself another willing student as they sat side by side and she taught him all variety of subjects. He wasn't overly bright, and Sam thought that by Earth standards that he most likely would have been classified as borderline mentally retarded, but he worked hard to learn and understand to the best of his abilities. His had been a simple people, his parents ran a small flour mill in their town, and though he knew his basic letters and numbers, he had never had the opportunity to attend a formal school.

One blustery night, Sam got up for some water and out of habit, checked on Egin and found herself also checking on Syrut and pulling his blanket up a little higher. She turned to see Ronon awake in their bed, his eyes full of amusement. She climbed back into bed and settled herself in the crook of Ronon's arm. She whispered, "You realize we have two kids right?"

A low chuckle rumbled out of Ronon's chest and he whispered back, "You're just figuring that out?"

\---------------

The death of the Wraith opened up the Pegasus galaxy for exploration.

Daniel had become a permanent fixture on Atlantis and joined offworld teams often as they discovered new planets and cultures. He helped cement trade agreements and cultural exchanges and for what felt like the first time in his life, he was doing the thing he most enjoyed, but there was always the shadow of Sam and Ronon hovering about the edges. He had been able to determine that though the symbols in the woman's diary were Furling, they turned out to be some sort of bastardized derivative that got them no closer to finding their missing comrades.

The IOA was completely shocked at just how effective Jack O'Neill actually was at leading the expedition. Beneficial treaties were readily established, scientific advances were progressing right along, and the overall moral of the expedition was high. And though there was some minor pandering and maneuvering behind the scenes at the IOA, there was no serious intention of recalling Jack. His straight-forward nature was just simply well received in Pegasus.

Daniel had observed with an anthropological eye the relationship that formed between Jack and John. There was certainly a healthy mutual respect between the two men, but it went deeper than that. They each recognized themselves in the other. They were cut from the same cloth and every passing day that they didn't know what had happened to Sam and Ronon, it festered in both of them.

Daniel wouldn't have been surprised to wake up one day to find out that Jack and John had simply slipped away in a jumper like thieves in the night to go find Sam and Ronon. He hoped they knew he would go with them in a heart beat, and so would McKay, Teyla, Vala, Mitchell, Teal'c, and even Lorne.

\---------------

A nasty snow system had moved into their area and the wind plastered the wet snow to the cabin and everything else in their valley.

The occupants of the cabin didn't care, they were busy decorating their Christmas tree and enjoying themselves. Syrut's people had a winter holiday that was a two-week long celebration held at the middle of winter to welcome winter's waning. He had eagerly soaked up all of Sam's story's about Christmas, and though, like Ronon, didn't take to the religious side of the holiday, he had been enthusiastically looking forward to their celebration as it reminded him a bit of home.

Ronon had apparently been sneakily creative again, and had many little gifts for all three of the others. There was a sturdy, but beautifully crafted belt and knife sheath for Syrut, along with a set of sheppard's pipes, something Syrut had shared with them that he knew how to play. There were blocks in all shapes and sizes for Egin, carefully shaved down smooth so the baby wouldn't get splinters.

Sam's gifts were, for lack of a better word, breathtaking. Both of her gifts were small bundles and she opened the first to find a dozen little birds, all painstakingly carved from wood and carefully painted with a feather in every color berry juice stain Ronon could concoct.

Sam held one up by its little leather tie and met Ronon's eyes, not believing that his big hands could craft something so small and beautiful. He grinned and shrugged and said, "Figured your tree could use some birds."

"They're beautiful, Ronon, thank you." Sam said with a grin as she moved over to the tree in the corner and placed the delicate little birds in and around their other decorations.

As she sat back down to open the other gift, Ronon was watching her intently, a look similar to the ones he gave her that first Christmas, like he wasn't sure what her reaction was going to be.

The little tied bundle in her hand was very small and relatively light. She opened it and gasped, her free hand flying to her mouth in shock. For lying there on the buttery soft piece of deerskin was a round gold pendant. The outer edge of the pendant was carved to look like a Stargate in miniature. And etched in the center was the gate address for Atlantis. Every detail was perfect, every glyph in order. There was a thin braided leather cord and Sam realized it was meant to be worn as a necklace.

Sam tore her eyes away from it and asked in disbelief, "How?"

Ronon replied sheepishly, "Found that lump of gold in the stream a while back, decided to save it for something special."

Sam's smile was blinding and she shook her head, "You are too much. I'll treasure it always," she looked back to the pendant and ran a finger gently over the glyphs, "Will you tie it for me?"

Ronon stood and took the ends of cord in his big fingers. Sam held her hair out of the way and Ronon securely tied the cord. He bent and dropped a kiss to Sam's bared neck and he whispered in her ear, "So we don't forget."

Sam reached up with her hand and found Ronon's cheek and whispered back, "We'll never forget."

\---

It was well after midnight, Syrut and Egin were asleep in their deer-skinned curtained off area of the cabin. Sam and Ronon were in their own. They had rigged the curtains shortly after Syrut had arrived to give both themselves and Syrut some privacy.

Sam was lying in the crook of Ronon's arm, they had made love a while ago, but neither were ready to sleep and were just enjoying the quiet intimacy. Sam was amusing herself by smoothing down Ronon's beard. They both knew that he would scratch it and fluff it back out to go whichever direction was its wont, but he let Sam have her fun.

Her fingers moved up and she traced his lips with her fingertips. In a whisper she told him, "I think I'm pregnant."

He grinned and replied in a whisper, "I thought you might be, but I wasn't sure yet."

She chuckled and teased back, "I should know better than to try and get anything past you," before she rolled on top of him and stretched herself out along his length to start kissing him at her leisure.

Ronon loved the fact that Sam was a strong, assertive woman not afraid of taking what she wanted in bed. He also liked the fact that she wasn't some tiny, fragile thing that he had to worry about breaking. Sam could take anything he could dish out, and they could be as rough or as gentle as they wanted together.

Their ardor returned after just a few minutes of teasing kisses. Ronon could feel her heat and growing wetness, just as his own cock had filled and was now looking for entrance.

They shifted and Sam sat up and sank down slowly on his cock. It still surprised him that she actually _enjoyed_ this particular position with him, Melena had said he was too much for her to take inside in this position, but Sam could take all of him and seeing her riding him so wantonly was incredibly arousing.

Sam moved slowly on top of him, drawing it out for both of them. There was a little light coming in over the curtain and Ronon's sharp eyes took in every curve of her in the dim light. She was beautiful like this, naked and strong and confident. He reached out a hand and his fingertips traced the pendant lying just above her breasts. He trailed them down to lightly brush a nipple as they moved down her stomach. When he slipped his thumb between them, she came almost instantly; he knew exactly what to do make her come. To make _his_ woman come. That thought set him over the edge himself, and he sat up, still deep inside her, and pulled her close as he came long and hard.

\---------------

The planet they were visiting was rocky and desolate and not particularly appealing, probably why it had a space and not planet-side Stargate. It was on the farthest edge of Pegasus and the furthest Stargate from Atlantis in the galaxy.

John made a face at the inhospitable view out the jumper window. Rodney was next him studying his data tablet and frowning. As they were just planning on a cursory sweep of the planet via jumper, it was just the two of them.

Rodney looked over to John and asked, "Can you take us higher? I'm getting some weird readings."

"Dangerous readings or interesting readings?"

Rodney just shot him a look that screamed volumes and John took the up almost into orbit.

Rodney worked fast and furious on the tablet and exclaimed, "That can't be right."

" _What_ can't be right, Rodney?"

Rodney turned to John with a look of absolute disbelief on his face. "On the other side of the planet, near the equator, I'm picking up the same energy signature as the ship that took Sam and Ronon. And... and... I'm able to ping their subcutaneous transponders. We found them. After all this time. We found them."

John cloaked the ship and immediately headed for the other side of the planet.

What they found surprised them both. Instead of a ship, they found what appeared to be some sort of a base. There was no activity however, and zero life signs.

John got a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach, transponders without life signs meant that Sam and Ronon were dead. As he landed the jumper, he forced himself to be at least thankful that he had found them and could bring them home to Atlantis so they could rest in peace.

They exited the jumper and immediately noticed odd piles of skeletal remains mixed with some sort of desiccated, decomposed flesh. Exactly how the corpses of Wraith looked when the flesh-eating bacteria were finished with them and they wondered if there were a connection.

They cautiously entered what appeared to be the main building, it was certainly the largest, heading for the location of the transponders.

The facility was very orderly and sterile without even a hint of personality. Nothing was locked, and it didn't even appear that there was any sort of locking mechanism on any of the glass doors. The majority of the doors were labeled with more of the blocky symbols they had all burned into their brains in their search for Sam and Ronon. John realized with a start that it made perfect sense now that the woman's diary drawings had been reversed; she had been looking at the symbols from the opposite side of a glass door.

They finally entered the room where the transponders were and both Rodney and John's mouths fell open. The room was actually a giant warehouse full of shelves. Thousands upon thousands of clear, neatly labeled boxes lined the shelves. From what they could see inside them, each box appeared to contain the personal effects of an individual.

Rodney scanned the room and located the boxes with the transponders. He and John shared a looked before each of them resolutely pulled a box off the shelf.

John opened his and recognized Ronon's clothing. His GDO was there as was his gun. Rodney cracked open the other box to find Sam's clothing, GDO, dog tags, and data tablet. In both boxes there was a small vial, each containing a transponder chip. The abductors had removed them from Sam and Ronon.

Rodney looked to John and asked in a small voice, "This is good right? I mean that we didn't find them here? Maybe they're still alive out there somewhere?"

"I don't know, Rodney. But until I see bodies, I won't believe they're dead."

"Yeah."

Also in each box was a flat milky crystal-like wafer. Rodney held one up and looked at it. "I'm betting this is some sort of data storage. We'll have to see what we can find to read it."

John nodded. "We need to do this right. Let's head back to Atlantis and let O'Neill know what we've found and we'll come back with a couple of teams to take this place apart."

They picked up the boxes with Sam and Ronon's belongings, there was no way they were getting left behind, and headed for the jumper.

\---------------

Ronon crouched near his snare, his forehead furrowed in concern. His snare had been sprung, but instead of a fat rabbit, he found a carefully placed edible root. He looked up quickly and scanned the forest.

In the four years they had been on the planet, no one, other than Syrut, had approached their valley. He didn't quite know what to make of the situation, but for some reason maybe the root offering left, he wasn't alarmed. He was curious and cautious, but not worried.

He reset the snare and went and hid, suspecting that whoever it was, that they would be back for more rabbit.

\---

She placed another root near the snare and reached to take the fat rabbit it had caught.

"Hi," a deep male voice said from behind her and she screamed and tried to run, only to trip on a tree root and fall.

"Easy," the man said gently, "I'm not going to hurt you."

She looked at the man in shock. He was clean and was wearing nice clothes and he was smiling at her. He didn't look or act like any of the men from the village.

Ronon crouched down and asked, "Did you hurt your foot?"

She shook her head.

"Are you hungry?"

Trembling, she nodded.

Ronon reached into the pouch he had belted to his waist and pulled out some dried deer meat and a chunk of the flat bread that Sam had made yesterday and handed them to the painfully skinny little girl. He tried to guess how old she was but it was difficult, she was very small and skinny but he figured she was probably about eleven or twelve. Much too young to be out in the wilderness on her own.

She tried to hide part of the food in her ragtag dress that barely covered her. Ronon sat all the way down on the ground and said, "You don't have to hide it for later, I've got more."

The girl looked down at her lap in shame and whispered, "Its not for me."

Ronon ticked his head to the side and prodded, "There's someone out here with you?"

The little girl looked up with her eyes brimming with tears. "My mother. She hurt her leg."

Ronon stood slowly and held out his hand to the girl. "What's your name?"

"Tissa."

"I'm Ronon. Let's go help your mother."

\---------------

Sam was sitting in the shade of a tree near the lake shore nursing their one month old daughter. It was a beautiful summer day, and Syrut and Egin were playing in the water.

The birth of their second child had gone even easier than the first. In the Satedan way, Sam got to name their daughter and she had thought long and hard about it. Names were important on Sateda and were supposed to be significant to the child's parents. Sam knew of only one woman's name that was that significant to Ronon, and she picked one for herself that was not an obvious choice but significant still. Melena Sha're Dex had pleased Ronon upon him first hearing it, and when she had shared that if it hadn't been for both those women, neither she or Ronon would be who they are today it pleased him even more. Then Sam had gotten a full-blown belly laugh out of him when she told him that could call the baby "Mel" and that it was the start of a whole new family tradition of girls with boy's nicknames.

Mel was a much quieter baby than Egin and Sam wondered she was going to take after Ronon's quiet, observing nature.

Sam saw Syrut stop dead and stare at the edge of forest. She turned to see Ronon coming out of the woods heading for the cabin, carrying what appeared to be a woman, with a child tagging along behind them.

She quickly stood and turned to Syrut. "Watch Egin, Syrut."

Sam headed for the cabin and put the baby in her cradle. She stirred up the hot coals in the fireplace and put water on to heat, suspecting she would need some.

Ronon arrived a minute later and carefully laid the unconscious woman down on Syrut's bed. She was almost beyond emaciated and there was a large gash on her leg that was severely infected and the odor coming off of it was repulsively pungent.

Sam looked at Ronon and their eyes held an entire conversation. Sam swallowed hard and nodded. She asked, "Ronon can you build up the fire a little and get some more water?"

As he did, the child, that Sam now realized was a little girl, was watching Sam with big eyes. Softly Sam said to her, "Hi, I'm Sam."

"I'm Tissa."

"That'a a pretty name. Is this your mother?"

Tissa nodded. "Her name is Geena."

"Okay, I'm going to get you both cleaned up and I'm going see if I can help your mother's sore leg. And then we'll get you something to eat. Sound good?"

Tissa nodded again.

Slowly but surely Sam gave Geena a thorough sponge bath, removing the accumulated filth from the woman's body as best she could. Sam figured Geena was about seven or eight years older than she was, and as she washed her face, she reminded Sam a little of Laira from Edora.

Geena's calf injury was bad, but Sam was relieved not to see angry red lines that would have indicated blood poisoning. She carefully cleaned the wound and had to struggle not to gag as it split open and vile smelling pus poured out. She did her best to debris it and squeeze out as much as she could, but it was severely infected. She bandaged it with a poultice of herbs that Ronon had taught her and slipped one of her own simple sleeping shifts over Geena's head to to clothe her. There was really nothing else she could do but pray that they hadn't found her too late to help.

She covered her with a light skin and turned her attention to Tissa.

Sam got some clean warm water and pinched one of Syrut's tunics for Tissa to wear and approached the traumatized child that was sitting quietly on the bench at their table watching Sam's every move.

Sam crouched down in front of her and gently stroked Tissa's filthy hair. "How's about we get you cleaned up, sweetheart?"

Tissa nodded and with a nervous hand reached out to run her fingers over Sam's long braid that was trailing over her shoulder.

Sam smiled even as her heart was breaking for Tissa and she said softly, "We can braid your hair like that after we wash it."

Tissa met Sam's eyes, still not quite believing that all of this was real.

Slowly and patiently as not to scare Tissa, Sam stripped off the filthy things she wore and thoroughly washed Tissa's body. Tissa was also emaciated and judging by her budding breasts and scant pubic hair, she was just starting puberty. She had to struggle to keep her temper as she did, because the more dirt came off, the more bruises became evident. The ones that infuriated Sam the most where the deep fingermarks on Tissa's thighs. Sam couldn't tell if Tissa had been raped, but there were definitely all the signs that she had been molested.

Sam had never wanted a P-90 so badly in her life.

Sam washed Tissa's hair twice with the reed foam and once Tissa was dressed in Syrut's tunic with a strip leather belting it like a dress, Sam patiently worked the major snarls out of Tissa's hair and braided it like she promised.

That done, Sam changed into fresh clothes herself, and dumped the entire pile of all their dirty clothes outside, doing a lot to immediately freshen the smell in the cabin.

Sam fixed Tissa a light meal and checked on Mel while the girl ate. That done, she then stuck her head outside, and saw that the pile of dirty clothes was gone and Ronon was standing over their outdoor fire pit watching them burn. When he saw Sam he quickly walked over to the cabin door.

"How is she?" he asked quietly.

"Not good. Her leg is badly infected. It opened and drained and I cleaned it but I just don't know. She didn't wake up at all."

"And the girl?"

"I got her cleaned up and she's eating a little now. I don't want to give her too much at a time, it'll just make her sick."

Ronon nodded but he could see by the look on Sam's face that there was something she wasn't telling him and he prodded, "What else?"

"She's full of bruises, she's been beaten and I'm pretty sure she's been abused."

"Abused how?" Ronon's brow furrowed.

There was a hardness in Sam's eyes Ronon had never seen before as she hissed out between clenched teeth, "Sexually."

Ronon felt his own blood boil but he swallowed down his rage and reached over to gently stroke Sam's cheek. "She's safe now. _No_ one is going to touch her here."

\---------------

Daniel Jackson was tired, to the bone weary, in both mind and spirit. He had spent the last ten months at the alien facility trying to crack their not-quite-Furling-language. He threw down his pencil in disgust and headed for the exit.

The planet's small moon was only a sliver in the night sky, but the star field was bright and clear. Daniel sat on a rock on the outskirts of the base and just stared up at the sky for a long time. Sam was out there somewhere and he wanted to find her now more than ever, but it felt like she was just out of his reach, just like the stars.

He didn't realize he was crying until he couldn't see the stars through his blurry eyes any longer.

\---

Daniel woke as dawn was breaking. His back ached from sleeping sitting on the ground up braced against the rock but he didn't get up.

A pair of boots and baggy bdu pants came into view and as Daniel looked up to see McKay, a mug of coffee was extended in his direction.

Rodney had been making a bit more progress than Daniel, but not a lot. He was hoping to design some way of tracking the abductor's unique energy signature, but thus far it had eluded them. He was just as frustrated as Daniel.

Rodney settled himself down next to Daniel and fished a couple of Powerbars out of his pocket, handing one to Daniel without a word.

They drank their coffee and ate their Powerbars as the day unfolded around them.

\---

It took another month but Daniel finally solved the riddle and figured out their language. Things snowballed after that, and the translation allowed Rodney and the other scientists to decipher the data that they had pulled from the alien systems.

The aliens were in fact abducting groups of people to seed human life on other planets. The abductees were extensively examined for general health and fertility before being taken and deposited on any one of a hundred planets in the alien's home galaxy.

Daniel was pacing around his workspace staring at the table pc in his hand when Rodney burst into the room.

"We found them."

Daniel looked up and blinked. "What?"

Rodney impulsively wrapped Daniel in a bear hug and exclaimed happily in Daniel's ear, "We found out where they put Sam and Ronon."

\---------------

Sam was dragging all of their bedding outside to air. It had been a long winter and the warm spring sun felt good.

Ronon and Syrut were turning over the garden soil, preparing it for planting. Egin was with them amusing himself by trying to catch earthworms as they did.

Tissa came out of the cabin with Mel in one arm and another blanket to air in the other.

\---

The young woman no longer bore any resemblance to the skinny, abused girl that she had been last summer. She had gained some healthy weight and her eyes had lost that numb, haunted look.

Geena had never awoken, her body just giving up, and they buried her in a clearing out in the forest.

It took a long time for Tissa to trust that no one would hurt her, and giving credit where credit was due, it was Syrut that helped her heal the most. His kind and gentle nature and quick laugh got through to her in ways that Sam and Ronon just couldn't.

Sam did have many heart to heart girl talks with Tissa. The first when Tissa had become hysterical at the onset of her first menstrual period a month after Ronon had found them. It had taken Sam the better part of a day to calm her down and get her to talk. Apparently in the village, girls were given to men as mates once they had their first period. Tissa had been promised to the oldest man in the village, a man named Kreb. From her description, Sam was pretty sure that Kreb was the man that tried to claim her when she and Ronon first arrived. Kreb had already been touching and satisfying himself on Tissa for three years even without penetration. So when Tissa got her period, she was terrified that Sam and Ronon were going to send her to Kreb. Sam promised her that was never going to happen and then very matter-of-factly explained what exactly her period was and how to care for herself.

Ronon's quiet way also got through to Tissa. For the longest time she wouldn't even make eye contact with the big man, but as time when by and she saw how patient he was with Syrut, even when Syrut did something wrong, and she watched Ronon playing with Egin or holding Mel and his playful, loving nature with them, she relaxed a little around him. She was fascinated watching him work with leather and deer skin. She would peek around the corner of the cabin to watch him work, not seeing the silly smirk on his face because he knew she was watching. Slowly, but surely, her courage grew and she inched closer to see better. Eventually she made it all the way to sit by his side and listen as he patiently explained what he was doing, and it quickly became evident that with a little more practice, she would easily become the best leather tailor out of all them, she just had a knack.

She missed her mother, but didn't miss anything else about their old life in the harsh village.

\---

Sam and Tissa were spreading out the bedding. Sam looked over to where the guys were tilling and smiled, a hot and sweaty and shirtless Ronon standing out in the sunshine was a thing to behold, and she wondered if they could sneak away for a few minutes of alone time later on, privacy in the cabin, even with curtains, was sorely lacking these days and it would be nice to make love without worrying about the noise.

Ronon paused in his digging and leaned on the sapling handle of the wood and stone hoe. He looked towards Sam and could see the look on her face as she stared at him. It was a look he knew well, and he licked his bottom lip and threw her back a wicked grin. It had been a long winter cooped up in the cabin and his woman was feeling frisky.

Any thoughts of a stolen few minutes together quickly vanished however, when both Sam and Ronon's heads whipped up as a familiar whine echoed through the air and a puddlejumper uncloaked over the trees a moment later.

It landed in the open meadow and the rear hatch opened.

\---------------

John hovered the jumper over the mud hut village and grimaced. "Somehow I can't picture Sam and Ronon living like that."

Jack's voice from the other seat replied, "No. Let's go check out those other life signs."

"Roger that."

\---

John's smile was instant when they approached the other coordinates. Ronon was impossible to miss standing there in the middle of what looked like a large garden patch.

Jack took in the neatly laid out homestead and solid little cabin and could see Carter in all of it. The woman herself was standing next to it and Jack let out a deep breath; it felt like the first time he had done that in nearly five years.

Daniel and Rodney crowded around Jack and John so they could see as well, almost not believing what they were seeing.

It was Rodney that asked, "Where'd they get all those kids?"

John laughed and said as he landed the jumper, "I have no idea. I say we go ask them."

\---------------

Ronon was cautious as the jumper door opened, putting himself between the jumper and his family. That only lasted as long as it took for all four men crowd each other out of the jumper. Seeing the familiar uniforms and faces instantly relaxed the big man.

Egin ran to his father and clung to his leg just as the rest of his family gathered around him. They all just stood there staring at each other.

Finally it was Jack that broke the ice. It was the slightest of gestures but Jack opened his arms just a bit and Sam stepped over and let herself be wrapped in a tight hug. She didn't make a sound, but Ronon could see the way her shoulders were hunching and he knew that she was crying.

Jack's hands were gently rubbing Sam's back and he whispered to Sam, "We never stopped looking."

Sam sniffed hard and tried to compose herself, her face still hidden from everyone else. "I never doubted that for a second."

Sheppard and Ronon were grinning at each other. "Sheppard."

"Ronon."

Soon bear hugs all around were dispensed and everyone seemed to be talking at once. When they shared the news that the Wraith were gone everyone just looked at Ronon for a moment, knowing what that meant to the Satedan. He was deep in thought for a moment, his feelings indiscernible on his face, when he all of a sudden threw back his head and raised up his arms in victory and let out a joyous war whoop that echoed throughout the valley.

Egin alternated between hugging Ronon and Sam's legs, peeking out at the visitors. Jack caught him looking and crouched down to the toddler's level. "Hi."

Sam gently ruffled Egin's hair and looked down, meeting Jack's eyes. "This is our son, Egin."

Even without the confirmation, Jack had known in an instant that the sandy haired boy was theirs. He looked just like Sam, but instead of crystalline blue, his large eyes were dark brown like Ronon's, like his father's.

Syrut was bursting with energy and announced, "I am Syrut."

Ronon grinned and teased, "He's the shy one."

Rodney looked in disbelief at Ronon and asked John, "Did he just make a joke?"

"Missed you, too, McKay," Ronon replied.

Daniel stepped over to Syrut and extended his hand, not wanting the young man to feel slighted. "Hello, Syrut. I'm Daniel."

Syrut's smile was instant. "Sam told me stories about you."

"Oh no," Daniel replied, "Guess I'll have to tell you some stories about her to get even."

Syrut nodded wildly, "Yes, please."

Everyone shared a chuckle and Ronon put his arm around Tissa and pulled her out of her hiding spot in back of Sam. Mel was in her arms, observing all the loud strangers with disapproval.

Ronon took Mel from Tissa. She reached over and took a hold of her father's beard in her little fist like some sort of security blanket. Ronon winced playfully and that made the baby laugh. He looked towards Sheppard and said, "This is our daughter, Melena." He put a gentle hand on the top of Tissa's head and said, "And this is Tissa."

Sam looked over at Ronon with a surge of pride and love and possessiveness. Jack and Sheppard caught it and shared one of their own.

It was Rodney that stated obvious as he stared between Sam and Ronon and gestured, "So you two..."

John and Jack each let out a little snort of laughter as Sam and Ronon gave Rodney matching raised eyebrows.

Daniel cleared his throat and asked, "So... do we get a tour?"

\---

Syrut gleefully led the group to the cabin, talking all the way. Sam noticed that Daniel wasn't meeting quite her eyes and she didn't know why.

As the rest of them headed for the cabin Sam tugged on his sleeve and said, "Hang back a second?"

He did and when the rest were out of earshot she asked, "Please look at me, Daniel." When he finally did, she could see that the lines around his eyes had deepened. "Daniel, please tell me what's bothering you. Is it the idea that Ronon and I..."

Daniel quickly interrupted, "No. It's not that. It's just... I'm sorry, Sam. It's my fault it took so long to find you. It took me almost a year to decipher their language."

" _Daniel_ ," Sam chided.

"I'm sorry."

"I'm officially calling a moratorium on those words, Daniel. The _only_ blame lies with the people that took us in the first place. The only blame, do you hear me?"

"None of us ever gave up hope. Jack and John especially."

Sam chuckled, "Those two are more alike than they realize."

Daniel finally smiled as he kept looking towards the cabin. He noted Ronon smiling and laughing and looking relaxed, it was the complete opposite of how he remembered the man. Daniel turned to Sam with a little smirk, "So you and Ronon?"

Sam blushed, "That sort of snuck up on me. But we're good together."

Daniel teased and nudged her with his shoulder, "I can see that. And I'm glad for you. For you both."

They started walking towards the rest of the group when Sam put her hand on Daniel's arm, bringing him to a stop. "Daniel, there's something I need to tell you before you hear it accidentally."

Daniel's brow furrowed. "What is it?"

"We do a lot of things the Satedan way. And they have some traditions about naming their children. Egin is named after his grandfathers. And Mel is named after two women that are important to Ronon and I."

Daniel nodded, nothing unusual about the concept. He asked, "So who is Melena to Ronon? And what is the other half of her name?" Daniel expected her to answer to be "Janet" or "Catherine".

"Melena was Ronon's first love, she... died on Sateda, and Mel's full name is Melena Sha're Dex."

Daniel swallowed hard and asked, "Sha're?"

"Without her you wouldn't have stayed on Abydos. And if you hadn't stayed on Abydos you would never have found the cartouche room which opened up the universe to us. I've seen and done the most amazing things stepping through the gate and it's all because of Sha're, and I'm _honored_ to name my daughter after her."

Daniel didn't know what to say, he just enveloped Sam in a bone-crushing hug.

\---

Jack was quiet as he looked around at the the tidy little homestead. The more he took in, the more he could see that it wasn't just a shelter from the elements, it was a home, something lived in, loved in.

Jack looked over at Ronon. He didn't know the man at all save what others had told him, but Jack could see how he was with Tissa and Syrut, and especially with his own toddlers. He was a good father, a good provider, one that kept his family safe and loved them and wasn't afraid to show that. He certainly wasn't the type of man Jack could have ever pictured Sam building a family with, but yet there they were.

When Sam and Daniel rejoined the group and Sam went to stand next to Ronon and his arm automatically went around her shoulder, Jack noticed something about Sam. It was as if she had somehow found a missing piece of herself out here in the wilderness with Ronon. He had to admit to himself that stung a little, a part of him still clinging to the idea that at some point they might have been able to let those feelings out that they had long ago left in that observation room with the za'tarc testing machine, but that opportunity was now gone, and Jack had to swallow down the lump in his throat that that realization brought.

\---

Daniel said quietly, "We've got two ships in orbit. We've got the go-ahead to stop at every planet where abductees where dropped off and see if any of them want to be returned to their home worlds."

Sam nodded. "Good."

Jack's eyes met Ronon's and asked, "So I guess we'll start with you two, do you want to go back to Atlantis?" He didn't say home, because he was standing in the middle of their home and he knew it.

Sam and Ronon had had that discussion many times, daydreaming out loud to each other about what they wanted to do if they were ever found. Sam knew that the idea of a safe home of their own for their children was important to Ronon, but he also wanted Sam to be happy and be able to do the work she loved so much. They had solved that dilemma by deciding that they would go back to Atlantis, but that they were going to live on the mainland with the four children and Sam could commute into the city to work as needed.

Ronon didn't flinch under Jack's intense gaze, he had nothing to be ashamed of, and said, "Yeah, we wanna go back."

Jack nodded and replied, "I'll have the ship beam down some packing crates for you."

\---

Egin, much to Rodney's horror, was fascinated by him and followed him everywhere much to everyone else's amusement. Mel though, had found a new friend in Daniel. The four visitors were babysitting the two toddlers while Sam and Ronon spoke with Tissa and Syrut in the cabin.

Both teenagers were excited, but terrified for different reasons and Sam and Ronon did their best to reassure them that they wouldn't be separated from each other or from them. Tissa was sitting on the bench at the table next to Ronon, pressed as close to his side as she could get. Ronon put his arm around her and gave the frightened child a little squeeze and said, "Nobody's gonna take you away from us. I promise."

Sam nodded and added, "Tissa, all four of those guys outside will protect you like we do, and there's a whole bunch more people on Atlantis that will too. No one is going to hurt you again, not ever."

Tissa sniffed and nodded but didn't move away from Ronon's one-armed hug.

Syrut wasn't sitting, he was nervously wandering the cabin, they could see him working himself up.

"Syrut," Sam said gently, "please tell us what you're thinking."

"They're going to make me go back to my planet."

Sam stood up and stopped Syrut in his pacing. With her hands on his shoulders she said, "Syrut, you're old enough to decide that for yourself. But don't you want to see your mother and father again? Your friends?"

"Yes, but I don't want to stay there."

Ronon reached over and wrapped his big hand around Syrut's wrist. "Nobody's gonna make you stay if you don't want to."

"Promise?" Syrut asked in a worried voice.

"I promise," Ronon said with a little nod.

\---

The packing crates had been beamed down while they were talking inside the cabin. Ronon, John, and Syrut brought them into the cabin and began packing. Sam found Rodney and Daniel sitting under a shade tree, Mel sound asleep on Daniel's shoulder. She didn't see Egin or Jack and Daniel grinned and pointed towards the lake.

Egin was happily showing Jack the turtles sunning themselves on a rock when Sam approached. He looked up at her and she could see that his eyes were a little sad.

Egin continued exploring the shore and Jack warned, "Stay out of the water."

Sam chuckled. "He's been swimming in that lake since he was only a few months old. He's a good swimmer. No worries."

They watched Egin intently investigating something in the water's edge for a couple of minutes when Jack's quiet voice said, "They're beautiful kids, Carter."

"Sam," was her reply.

Jack got her meaning and repeated, "They're beautiful kids, Sam."

"Thanks. They were a gift that I'm still not quite sure I earned."

Jack turned to face her, his face serious as was his tone as he said, "More than earned, Sam, _more_ than earned."

A plunk of a rock hitting the water brought their attention back to Egin who had chucked a stone into the lake.

Sam was still watching her son as she said softly to Jack, "I'm sorry."

"Do you love him?" Jack asked with his eyes fixed firmly out on the lake.

"Yes," came Sam's simple reply without hesitation.

"And he loves you?"

"Yeah, he does," Sam replied.

"He's seems like an alright guy, Sheppard raves about him."

Sam chuckled, "Ronon is a good man, Jack."

Jack turned his head slightly, a sad little grin on his face. "He'd have to be for you to fall in love with him."

\---

Rodney migrated into the cabin. He plunked down on the bench and looked around and said, "I still can't believe you managed to build this with just the little tools they gave you."

"Took a while," Ronon replied as he put a pile of clothing into a crate.

"And you and Sam?" Rodney asked abruptly.

" _McKay_ ," John said in exasperation.

Ronon actually chuckled. "That took a while, too."

Rodney shook his head and turned to John, "I'm never going to get used to him telling jokes."

Syrut chimed in, "Ronon tells jokes all the time. He makes Sam laugh."

Ronon shrugged and dumped more stuff in a crate.

Rodney asked, "So you and Sam wasn't because of...," he trailed off and gestured vaguely in the air.

" _Rodney_!," John hissed.

"Sheppard, it's alright. All of you are probably thinking that," Ronon said.

"Still, there are better ways to ask," John said and frowned at Rodney.

Ronon shrugged again. "It wasn't because of the people that took us." He focused on Rodney and continued, "It didn't happen right away. We were here almost two years before..."

Rodney nodded, getting the drift. "You're different. Happy, even."

John looked at Ronon realizing what Rodney said was true. They might not have asked to be abducted and dumped off on this frontier planet, but they had made the best of it. They made a home and a family and had a good life. Ronon _was_ happy and John hoped that continued once they went back to Atlantis.

\---

They had released the goats from the pen, and the packing crates had all been beamed up to the awaiting ship.

Everyone was heading for the jumper, but Ronon was no where to be found. Sam handed Mel to Tissa and said she would go find him.

She found him in the cabin, sitting on the edge of their bed. His expression was thoughtful and sad. She went and stood in front of him and he pressed his cheek to her stomach and wrapped his arms around her back. Her hands gently rubbed his shoulders and neck.

"This was a good home," Sam said quietly.

Ronon sat back and pulled Sam down onto his lap. "Yeah."

"What's bothering you? Do you not want to go back?"

"It's just... things are gonna change."

"Not if we don't let them."

"Sure about that?"

"Positive," Sam said with a grin and kissed him lightly.

He squeezed her tight and they sat there for a few quiet minutes, finishing their stay on the planet how they began it, just the two of them.

Or so Ronon thought.

They stood to go and Ronon paused in the doorway and said, "Made a lot of memories here."

Sam chuckled and said lightly, "Made three babies here."

It took a heartbeat for that to sink in to Ronon's head and he slowly turned to Sam who was standing there with an impish grin.

She teased, "Did I actually sneak one past you this time?"

\---

The jumper was full and John had insisted that Syrut ride shot-gun and the young man was asking all the questions he could think of, all the while his eyes wide with wonder.

They flew over to the mud-hut village and landed the jumper in a nearby field. Rodney offered to stay in the jumper with Tissa, Syrut and the babies, while the rest went to offer a way home to those in the village.

At the strangers' approach, all the women and children went scurrying into the huts and the men formed ranks behind the same ugly, scarred man with yellowed teeth that had first greeted Sam and Ronon when they arrived on the planet.

Daniel took the lead. "We come in peace. We've been looking for our friends," he gestured to Sam and Ronon, "for a long time and finally found them and you. We know you were taken from your home worlds and we would like to offer to bring you home."

The leader spat out, "You're not welcome here."

Daniel ignored him and spoke to the crowd, "Any person- man, woman, or child that wants to come with us is welcome. If we can't find your home world, we will find you a safe place to live in peace with everything you need to live comfortably.."

The leader looked at Ronon, "I remember you. Thought you died out in the forest."

Ronon's eyebrow quirked up, "Sorry to disappoint you."

Jack noticed a particular set to Sam's jaw, the disgust practically rolling off of her in waves.

She pushed to the foreground and without hesitation, took Daniel's sidearm out of its holster. She stepped in front of the leader and addressed the village, more specifically the women cowering in the huts. "You don't have to be afraid. We won't let them hurt you or try to stop you if you want to leave. You and your children will be safe, I promise."

The leader raised his hand to strike her, and even as Ronon was moving to kill him, Sam had raised the Beretta and aimed it at his forehead. She had flint in her voice as she said low and deadly, "You're not going to hurt anyone else. Not ever."

The leader fixed his eyes on Ronon standing just behind Sam's shoulder and said, "You let your _woman_ act like this?"

Sam didn't hesitate, and the leader was on the ground a moment later clutching his head where Sam had pistol-whipped him.

Ronon crouched down near him and pulled the man up by his tunic and growled out, "I don't _let_ her do anything, she's free to as she wants. And she's my woman because she _wants_ to be."

A more timid man came forward from the back of the crowd and asked calmly, "You would really return us home?"

Sam nodded, "Yes. Anyone that wants to go."

A woman came out of the hut with an infant in one arm and holding the hand of a small dirty little boy. She quickly crossed to Sam and hit her knees in front of Sam. "Please, please take us with you."

Sam crouched and helped the woman to her feet. "Of course we will. Don't be afraid."

Slowly but surely, the huts emptied out as more women came forward, some with children, some without. A few of the men also wanted to go, but a good portion of them stayed behind the leader.

Sam gave Daniel back his sidearm and he and John were leading the group back towards the jumper to arrange to to have them beamed up to the ship.

The leader was back on his feet and looked towards the jumper. Tissa was standing outside it greeting some of the approaching women that she knew.

The leader demanded, "That girl is mine. She was promised to me."

Sam asked coldly, "You're Kreb?"

"That's my name. And once that girl bleeds she will be my new mate. She's young and will breed well" His hand went to the knife at his belt.

Before Sam or Ronon could react, Jack's voice piped up with a phrase Sam had heard come from him many times throughout the years, "Oh, there's not a chance in hell."

An instant later there was a Ka-bar sticking out of Kreb's chest as he slowly sank to the ground.

Ronon and Sam turned to face Jack. His emotions were shuttered and he just shrugged slightly.

Ronon pulled the Ka-bar from Kreb's chest and wiped it off on the dead man's tunic. He stepped over to Jack and flipped it over to hand it to Jack handle first. Their eyes met and held for moment before Ronon grinned and clapped Jack on the solider.

Sam looked at the rest of the men assembled and said, "Last chance."

Two more headed towards the jumper.

Sam, Ronon, and Jack did the same. Sam and Ronon were very surprised when the normally shy Tissa flew to Jack and wrapped her arms around him; she had seen him kill Kreb.

Soon enough all the abductees were beamed up and John piloted the jumper up out of the atmosphere and and safely into the waiting ship.

\---------------

They had been back almost seven months and were were still living on Atlantis. Ronon was building them a home near a small lake on the mainland, but he was going slow and taking his time to build it exactly the way he wanted it. The way _Sam_ wanted it. Her only requests were indoor plumbing and a bedroom of their own with a lockable door.

They had settled back into the population of Atlantis with very little effort, but a ton of fanfare, everyone on the city glad to see them safely returned. There was a lot of talk and speculation about Sam and Ronon and the possibility of their pairing being forced by their abductors but it didn't take very long for those around them to see the strength of the bond between them and the genuine love and affection they shared.

The debriefs were long and arduous, but Jack defended them both when the IOA tried prying into things they had no business prying into. Sam officially resigned from the Air Force but did sign on as a civilian scientist for Atlantis with the understanding that her family came first.

With the Wraith extinct, Ronon had no more wars to fight and though he still had a place with Sheppard's team any time he wanted to go on a mission, Ronon spent most of his time as he had back on the planet, building a home for his family and spending time with his children.

\---

The visit to Syrut's home world had been heartbreaking. From the complete destruction it was clear that the world had been been one of the last culled before the demise of the Wraith.

Syrut was very withdrawn after that, and Sam enlisted the help of her fellow scientists in keeping the young man occupied. Syrut, for all his limited intellect, turned out to be a very efficient assistant for the science teams. He never touched things he wasn't supposed to, and always, almost obsessively, followed instructions to the letter.

He worked hard and learned as much as he was able, and had gotten to the point where there were occasionally small repairs that he was allowed to make on his own. His self-esteem soared and the cheerful young man he was came back out.

He had made a odd friend in Radek of all people. Radek appreciated Syrut's respectful nature and willingness to follow instructions and they worked well together completing repairs around the city. Radek was also thrilled to have finally found someone that appreciated his love of homing pigeons and the two were trying to browbeat the biologists into letting them have a small coop out on one of the piers.

Syrut was well liked on the city, and was eagerly included in any number of activities that others had going on. Sam and Ronon suspected that once their home was complete on the mainland that Syrut wouldn't be going with them, and Radek had already casually mentioned to Sam that there was a empty set of quarters down the hall from his that would be suitable for Syrut's first apartment.

\---

Tissa surprised them most of all. She spent a considerable amount of time with Jack of all people. She trusted him implicitly after seeing him kill Kreb. Jack took her want of attention in stride and willingly gave it to her. Although she was physically a teenager, emotionally she was much younger, and Jack's carefree and gentle manner appealed to her. They were seen often in the mess sneaking a dessert in the middle of the afternoon, and he taught her how to fish and how to play chess and would help her with the schoolwork Sam gave her to do. Sometimes they would find some out of the way balcony and she would sit tucked under Jack's arm as they read a book together. He was good for her and she was good for him, helping ease the hurt that seeing Sam and Ronon together with their children still brought.

One evening about six months after they arrived on the city, Sam washed Mel's face after dinner and turned her towards Ronon and said, "Go see your father." For no apparent reason, Tissa had broken out in tears and ran to her bedroom to sob into her pillow.

Sam and Ronon exchanged a look of absolute confusion and a very pregnant Sam waddled into the bedroom the two girls shared. She sat down carefully on the edge of the bed and gently rubbed Tissa's back. "What's wrong?"

It took a minute, but eventually Tissa sobbed out, "I don't have a father."

Sam swallowed hard and replied, "I know, sweetheart, but you have many, many people that love and care about you."

Tissa's crying storm continued and Sam heard her say through her tears, "I wish Jack was my father."

Sam didn't quite know what to say to that and just stroked Tissa's hair until her crying subsided and she fell asleep.

The next day Sam sought out Jack and told him about Tissa's crying jag. He was surprised to say the least. "She wishes _I_ was her father? What about Ronon?"

Sam just shook her head. "I don't know."

They sat quietly for a few minutes, thinking and trying to sort out the situation. Jack met Sam's eyes and said quietly, "I would."

Sam's eyebrow shot up in confusion. "Would what?"

"Adopt her. That's what you're thinking isn't it?"

"It was one of a bunch of other thoughts in my head," Sam admitted.

"We should talk to one of the psychologists before we get too far ahead of ourselves. It may not be the best thing for her."

Sam grinned knowingly. "Actually, Jack, I'm betting that's it's probably the best thing for the both of you."

After speaking with Tissa and Jack separately and then together, the psychologist agreed with Sam's assessment. And so it was that shortly thereafter, Jack initiated the Earth-side paperwork to formally adopt Tissa and he and Tissa moved into a new two-bedroom set of quarters.

Sam was still Tissa's go-to person for girl stuff, and her schoolwork, but Jack was her world.

Sam had been worried about how Ronon was going to take it, but in the end he had just agreed with Sam that being with Jack was the best thing for her and that was what was important.

\---

Daniel stopped by their quarters often. He would sit with Egin and Mel for hours introducing them to new words in any one of a handful of languages, and Sam smiled as she often caught him whispering words in Abydonian to Mel, making sure that more than just a name got passed down from the wife he had loved and lost.

He also ventured out to the partially completed house to spend time with Ronon. Ronon knew that Daniel was one of Sam's oldest friends and that it was important to her that they get along, so he made an effort. Daniel was interested in Sateda and its history, and Ronon found himself sharing bits and pieces of Satedan culture with Daniel as they worked on the house. It was the beginnings of a friendship that neither man expected.

\---

Ronon also met another of Sam's oldest friends: Teal'c. The man was held in high esteem by everyone and Ronon had to grudgingly admit that from the stories that Sam had shared with him, that the man most likely earned that high esteem, but the constant comparisons to Teal'c rankled Ronon a bit.

He had avoided Teal'c for the most part, vanishing out of their quarters and heading out to the mainland to work on the house. Teal'c was, however, very interested in getting to know him and seeing for himself that he was worthy of Sam's affection and followed him out there.

Teal'c looked around the building site with an assessing eye while Ronon continued working and ignoring him.

Teal'c nodded in approval at what he saw and said to Ronon, "You are building a fine home for your family, Ronon Dex."

Ronon didn't reply or acknowledge Teal'c. "You and Samantha Carter have strong and handsome children, and are soon to have another. You are a most fortunate man, Ronon Dex."

Ronon paused in his work and asked, "You have any?"

Teal'c stepped closer, and without being asked, steadied the beam Ronon was squaring off. He replied proudly, "I have a son, Rya'c. He has grown into a fine man of whom I am very proud."

Ronon nodded and worked quietly for another minute before asking, "Why are you here?"

"Samantha Carter is one of my dearest friends and comrades, and I felt it necessary to get to know the man that has fathered her children and won her affection."

Ronon looked up with an annoyed looked on his face. "So you're here to judge me? See if I'm worthy or something?"

"That is not my intention. I had hoped that we could get to know one another in the hopes that some day you, too, might call me friend."

Teal'c's honest words softened the expression on Ronon's face and he grinned and asked as he lifted his end of the heavy beam, "Help me put these beams in place?"

With a little grin of his own and a nod of his head, Teal'c did just that.

They broke for some food and Teal'c asked plainly, "Did you have a woman on Sateda before its fall?"

"Yeah. Melena."

"Ah. The woman your daughter is named after."

"It's the Satedan way to name daughters after women that are important to you."

"I have observed that you and Samantha Carter do many things in the Satedan way."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ronon said defensively.

"I mean no disrespect to your ways. I am however, curious to know, did men and women marry on Sateda?"

"Only the wealthy."

"I see."

"Do Jaffa marry?"

"Indeed."

"Why are you bringing this up?"

Teal'c met Ronon's eyes and said in his ever plain way, "There are those on Atlantis and back on Earth that believe that the bond between you and Samantha Carter was forced upon you and is not something you choose freely."

Ronon's brow furrowed. "I know. Sam says the best way to deal with it is by ignoring them."

"Indeed. But I would point out that those people use the fact that you have not wed as evidence to support their beliefs."

"That's not my way."

"Understood. But perhaps it is time for you to do something in the _Tauri_ way."

\---

Ronon had taken Teal'c advice, not because he, himself, had any particular desire to marry, in his mind Sam was his woman and that was all that mattered, but rather because the idea that others thought he was dishonoring her and their children by not making Sam his wife made him both sad and angry.

They were married on a warm, sunny day in the shaded glen near their nearly completed home on the mainland. Daniel officiated the simple ceremony that was witnessed by a small group of those closest to Sam and Ronon. The party following was fun and full of laughter and love.

Tissa had attended but Jack had not, and though that stung a little, Sam understood, and so did Ronon.

\---------------

Two weeks later Ronon's sure hands delivered his third child with the gentle lake sounds coming through the window of their bedroom on the mainland. He looked up to Sam with a grin and said, "It's a boy."

Sam was exhausted but smiled back as Ronon took care of his midwife duties as efficiently as he had with their first two children.

She knew the medical staff on Atlantis were going to be angry that she didn't call them to officiate, but it was important to her and to Ronon that it be just the two of them. She couldn't explain it, but it was what they wanted.

Ronon grinned as their son squalled as he gently cleaned him. "He's louder than Egin was," Ronon teased.

A while later, after everyone was cleaned up and snuggled in fresh blankets, Ronon, as he had with both of his other children, slipped into bed beside his woman and let the baby be lulled to sleep by both of their heartbeats.

\---------------  
the end.

 


End file.
